History

AKDENİZ UNIVERSITY PROF.DR.TUNCER KARPUZOĞLU ORGAN TRANSPLANT INSTITUTE

Akdeniz University is one of the first universities in our country to embrace the vital awareness of organ transplantation and pioneered the education and research services in this field and is one of the world's leading organ transplantation centres with its multiorgan and composite tissue transplants.

On 14 April 1982, the first organ transplantation practices, which started with kidney transplantation, were organized under the name of Organ Transplantation Training, Research and Application Centre, which was established under the Rectorate of Akdeniz University on 31.10.1991. Our university, which has made breakthroughs in many fields in recent years, broke new ground in our country with the "Akdeniz University Prof. Dr. Tuncer Karpuzoğlu Organ Transplant Institute" established on 28/07/2010. The aim of the institute is to perform all kinds of organ transplantation applications at a modern level and to transfer new developments in tissue and organ transplantation to our country. The Institute aims to increase cooperation and solidarity by sharing knowledge and experience with the centres working in this field in Turkey and abroad. Some of the other objectives include conducting basic and applied research on organ transplantation, developing new techniques in this field, increasing organ donation, and ensuring the development of regulations on the sharing of donated organs throughout the country in accordance with scientific and ethical values, and conducting studies to raise awareness of all segments of society.

With the successful organisation of the organ transplantation coordination system in our center, organ transplants such as kidney transplantation with living / cadaver donors, liver transplantation with living / cadaver donors, pancreas and heart transplants with cadaver donors as well as composite tissue (face, extremity, uterus, cornea, skin, bone...) transplants are successfully performed. Since 1982, 3000 kidney, 207 liver, 61 pancreas and 52 heart transplants, 23 kidney-pancreas, 6 kidney-liver and 1 heart-kidney transplants, tissue-mismatched living donor kidney transplants, cross-donor living donor kidney transplants have been performed. We are also proud of the fact that Turkey's first double arm transplantation in 2010, the world's first cadaver donor uterus transplantation in 2011 and Turkey's first face transplantation in 2012 were performed in our centre.

In addition to these summarised medical treatment applications, scientific research and publication activities in clinical and laboratory fields are carried out, and all kinds of opportunities are provided to the health professionals of our country who want to receive theoretical and practical training in organ transplant surgery, nephrology and coordinatorship, immunology and other subjects.

The institute, which is intended to be a dynamic and active scientific institution, aims to bring the subject to world standards by adding new ones such as lung, small intestine and larynx to the organ transplantation practices currently carried out at our university in the coming years. The institute, which aims to carry out studies that will provide international prestige with its laboratory equipment that can conduct experimental and clinical research at the cell and molecular level, which is a "sine qua non" for organ transplantation, plans to share the knowledge produced with the students it will accept and to provide merit diplomas at the master's and doctoral level, which are respected worldwide.