ISHLT Highlights Research from the Next Generation with 2025 Annual Meeting Abstract Awards
The International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation 45th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions included more than 2,000 presentations on improving outcomes for patients with advanced heart and lung disease from investigators from around the world.
Three abstract presentations from Boston were selected to receive awards to recognize excellence from early career investigators. All conference abstracts are available to the public in a special supplement to The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation’s April 2025 issue.
The Philip K. Caves Award, Early Career & Trainee Clinical Case Dilemmas Best Presentation Award encourage and reward original high-quality research from trainees, residents, fellows, graduate students, and young researchers in fields across advanced heart and lung disease and transplantation.
Philip K. Caves Award
Awarded to: Isabela Landsteiner, MD
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA USA
Presentation Title: Characterization of Exercise Hemodynamic Profiles in Patients with Normal Resting Pulmonary Arterial Pressures
Abstract: This research investigates the role of exercise hemodynamic assessment in unmasking clinically significant abnormalities in patients with exertional dyspnea and normal resting hemodynamics. By subclassifying these patients into distinct exercise hemodynamic phenotypes, we found that one-third exhibited abnormal pulmonary vascular response to exercise, which was associated with significantly worse event-free survival.
Early Career Scientist Award
Awarded to: Nicole Chrysler, BS
Toronto Lung Transplant Program, Toronto, ON Canada
Presentation Title: Anti-Donor T Cell Dynamics and Clad Risk in the Assessment of Lung Allograft Rejection - Measurement of T Cell Immune Synapses (ALARM-T) Study
Abstract: This study explores the relationship between anti-donor T cell dynamics and the development of chronic lung allograft dysfunction (CLAD) in lung transplant recipients. Using an imaging flow cytometry-based immune synapse detection method, the research identifies significant changes in peripheral blood alloreactive T cells within the first 6 months post-transplant, with pre-transplant T cells linked to later CLAD development. These findings highlight the potential of T cell alloreactivity as a predictive marker for CLAD risk and graft outcomes.
Early Career & Trainee Clinical Case Dilemmas Best Presentation Award
Awarded to: Ali Akamkam, MD, MSC
Greater Paris University Hospitals, Paris, France
Presentation Title: First Clinical Use of a Bioprosthetic Total Artificial Heart in a Patient with an Invasive Mediastinal Tumor
Abstract: This case report covers the implantation of a total artificial heart in a patient with a malignant mediastinal tumor, who was not eligible for transplantation, describing the case from the implantation of the total artificial heart to the cardiac transplantation.
For more information about each of the awards, visit https://www.ishlt.org/grants-and-awards/scientific-abstract-awards.