Program Overview
Workshop produced by Columbia University, Department of Medicine, Columbia Center for Translational Immunology on behalf of the Organizing Committee.

While advances in non-specific immunosuppressive therapy have expanded the scope and success of transplantation in recent decades, chronic graft rejection and the many toxicities of long-term immunosuppressive therapies are major obstacles to further advancement. Re-education of the immune system to a state of tolerance, in which the immune system remains functional and competent but treats the donor as “self” and therefore does not reject it, would prevent chronic rejection and avoid the need for long-term immunosuppression, with its many complications and high cost.  In recent years, for the first time, several clinical protocols have been developed that successfully led to organ allograft tolerance. Furthermore, new biological compounds and cell therapies aimed at tolerance induction have been developed and demonstrated safety in transplant recipients and some are beginning to be evaluated in tolerance trials. 

The International Sam Strober Workshop on Clinical Immune Tolerance is a biennial meeting which brings together leaders in the field of transplant tolerance and its underlying basic science in order to exchange progress and ideas in the field of immunosuppression minimization or withdrawal in solid organ transplantation.  Through their unique interactive format, these workshops have been instrumental in accelerating progress in the field. The Fourth International Workshop on Clinical Immune Tolerance was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, September 5-6, 2019 and a summary of the presentations from this meeting is published in the American Journal of Transplantation.  

The Fifth International Sam Strober Workshop on Clinical Immune Tolerance workshop will include two days of presentations and discussions on the status of clinical trials designed to minimize or withdraw immunosuppressive drugs in kidney, liver, intestinal and lung transplantation.  The workshop will also include presentations of mechanistic studies designed to improve understanding of the cellular and molecular basis of tolerance and to identify potential predictors/biomarkers of tolerance.

Discussions are led by investigators who are either leading or planning clinical trials in the field, identified from all known programs through prior attendance, publication, or registration on clinical trial registries internationally. The purposes of the current workshop will be (1) to review and discuss updated information from actively engaged investigators carrying out trials of the safe minimization or withdrawal of immunosuppressive (IS) agents in kidney, liver, intestinal and lung transplantation; (2) to discuss underlying mechanisms and immunologic monitoring; and (3) discuss the potential of new strategies and agents and the design of new trials.  The 5th workshop will report final data from completed studies, long-term outcomes of past studies, as well as interim data from ongoing studies.