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ISHLT 46th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions

We’re excited to exhibit at ISHLT’s 46th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions and connect with clinicians, researchers, and industry partners from across the heart and lung transplant community to discuss innovation in organ preservation and transplantation.

Visit us at booth #115 to meet the team, learn more about our work, and continue the conversation around improving outcomes and expanding transplant access.

Booth
115
Exhibition Booth
Metro Toronto Convention Centre
April 22–25, 2026  ·  Toronto, ON, Canada

Introducing our Industry Symposium. We’re pleased to host an industry symposium focused on the role of improved preservation in advancing lung and heart transplantation. Featuring leading experts in lung and heart transplantation, this session will examine the science behind 10°C preservation, review emerging clinical experience, and discuss how preservation innovation can improve logistics, utilization, and program growth.

Traferox Industry Symposium
Friday, April 24, 2026  ·  11:45 AM – 12:45 PM
Metro Toronto Convention Centre  ·  Room 718B
Reaching 200 Transplants per Year: How Improved Preservation Can Drive Outcomes and Volume in Lung and Heart Programs
10°C organ preservation is redefining what is possible in heart and lung transplantation by improving organ protection, simplifying logistics, and offering a more scalable approach to improved preservation. This symposium will explore the underlying science and mechanisms supporting 10°C preservation, review the growing body of clinical evidence in heart and lung preservation, and consider how improved preservation strategies can unlock higher transplant volumes – creating a path to 200 heart and 200 lung transplants per year.
Moderated By
Dr. Shaf Keshavjee
Dr. Shaf Keshavjee
University Health Network
Dr. Ashish Shah
Dr. Ashish Shah
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Program
10°C Preservation: The Science and Mechanisms Behind Improved Preservation
Dr. Marcelo Cypel
10°C Lung Preservation: Clinical Trials and Experience
Dr. Konrad Hoetzenecker
Improved Outcomes & Logistics: Experience with >140 Hearts Preserved at 10°C
Dr. Aaron Williams
Closing Remarks: Reaching 200 Lung & 200 Heart Transplants a Year
Dr. Shaf Keshavjee, Dr. Ashish Shah
Featured Speakers
Dr. Marcelo Cypel
Dr. Marcelo Cypel
University Health Network (UHN)
Dr. Konrad Hoetzenecker
Dr. Konrad Hoetzenecker
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Dr. Aaron Williams
Dr. Aaron Williams
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
This is an independent non-CME event and is not an official part of the ISHLT Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions.

Learn more about the moderators & presenters

Moderators & Presenters
Dr. Shaf Keshavjee
Moderator
Shaf Keshavjee OC O.Ont MD MSc FRCSC FACS
University Health Network (UHN)
Chief of Innovation, UHN
Co-Director, AI Hub@UHN
Donald K Jackson Chair in Lung Transplant Research
Director, Latner Thoracic Research Laboratories
Professor of Thoracic Surgery & Biomedical Engineering
Vice Chair Innovation, Dept. Surgery, University of Toronto

Shaf Keshavjee is a thoracic and lung transplant surgeon and Chief of Innovation at University Health Network (UHN). He is Professor of Thoracic Surgery and Biomedical Engineering and Vice Chair for Innovation, Department of Surgery, Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Keshavjee completed his medical training at UofT in 1985, subsequently training in General Surgery, Cardiac Surgery and Thoracic Surgery, followed by fellowship training at Harvard University and the University of London. He joined the UofT faculty in 1994 and was promoted to Full Professor in 2002. He served as Surgeon-in-Chief of University Health Network from 2010–2022 and Director of the Toronto Lung Transplant Program from 1997–2025.

His research focus is lung injury and repair related to transplantation, encompassing support systems, molecular diagnostics and gene therapy to repair and engineer organs for transplantation. He has served on the boards of ISHLT, the Canadian Society of Transplantation, and the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, where he also served as Treasurer and 102nd President.

Dr. Keshavjee has received the Medawar Prize from the Transplantation Society, the Flance-Karl Award from the American Surgical Association, and the FNG Starr Award — the highest national honour from the Canadian Medical Association. He was awarded the Order of Ontario in 2014 and appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2013.

Dr. Ashish Shah
Moderator
Ashish S. Shah, MD, FACS
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Professor & Chair, Department of Cardiac Surgery
Alfred Blalock Endowed Directorship in Cardiac Surgery
Medical Director, Cardiac Surgery OR Pod & Heart Transplant Surgery

Ashish S. Shah is a cardiothoracic and heart-transplant surgeon and the Alfred Blalock Endowed Chair and Professor of Cardiac Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), where he serves as Surgical Director of Heart Transplant and Mechanical Support. He is also Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt’s School of Engineering.

He completed a BSE in Biomedical Engineering at Duke University and an MD at the University of Pittsburgh, training in general surgery and thoracic surgery at Duke. Before joining Vanderbilt in 2015, he was on the Johns Hopkins faculty, where he directed the Lung Transplant Program and later the Heart Transplant and Mechanical Support Program. His clinical focus spans advanced heart failure, transplantation, ECMO, and mechanical circulatory support.

Dr. Shah’s leadership portfolio includes service on the AATS Annual Program Committee, Program Co-Director for the 2024 AATS MCS/Transplant Summit, and the 2024 STS Annual Program Committee. He serves on editorial boards for the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and the Annals of Thoracic Surgery. His honors include Alpha Omega Alpha, NIH and AHA research fellowships, and the Joe Berretta Foundation Physician Award.

Dr. Marcelo Cypel
Presenter
Marcelo Cypel, MD MSc FACS FRCSC
University Health Network (UHN)
Director, Toronto Lung Transplant Program
Surgical Director, Ajmera Transplant Centre
Full Professor of Surgery, University of Toronto

Dr. Marcelo Cypel is a Staff Thoracic Surgeon at University Health Network (UHN) and Full Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto. He is Director of the Toronto Lung Transplant Program and Surgical Director of the Ajmera Transplant Center — one of the top 3 largest transplant centers in North America, performing more than 750 transplants per year.

In 2005, during his post-doctoral fellowship at the Latner Thoracic Surgery Laboratory, Dr. Cypel developed Ex Vivo Lung Perfusion (EVLP) — a new method of lung preservation and donor lung repair now used clinically in Toronto and many centers worldwide, significantly increasing the number of transplantable lungs.

Dr. Cypel is the principal investigator of highly innovative clinical trials including 10°C lung preservation, uncontrolled donation after cardio-circulatory death for lung transplantation, and in vivo lung perfusion with chemotherapy to treat lung metastases. He has been a two-time awardee of the Canada Research Chair in Lung Transplantation and has published extensively in high-impact journals including Science Translational Medicine and The New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Konrad Hoetzenecker
Presenter
Konrad Hoetzenecker, MD, PhD, MIB
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Surgical Director, Vanderbilt Lung Transplant Program
Professor of Surgery, Department of Thoracic Surgery

Konrad Hoetzenecker is a Professor of Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Surgical Director of the Vanderbilt Lung Transplant Program. He earned his medical degree from the Medical University of Vienna, where he also completed his doctoral thesis and trained in thoracic surgery.

He joined the faculty of the Department of Thoracic Surgery at the Medical University of Vienna in 2016, and in 2017 was appointed Director of the Vienna Lung Transplant Program, which under his leadership became the largest lung transplant program in Europe.

His research interests include donor lung preservation, advancing surgical techniques, and improving patient outcomes after lung transplantation. His main clinical focuses are adult and pediatric lung transplantation and surgery of the airways.

Dr. Aaron Williams
Presenter
Aaron Williams, MD
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Assistant Professor of Cardiac Surgery
Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Dr. Aaron Williams is an Assistant Professor of Cardiac Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, specializing in heart failure, mechanical circulatory support, cardiac transplantation, and advanced aortic and endovascular surgery. His clinical practice encompasses the treatment of aortic aneurysms, valvular and coronary artery disease, with expertise in minimally invasive cardiac surgery and pulmonary thromboendarterectomy for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.

Dr. Williams’s research centers on ischemia–reperfusion injury and organ recovery in transplantation. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, including key papers on 10°C donor heart preservation and the development of Rapid Recovery with Extended Ultra-oxygenated Preservation (REUP). His research has been supported by multiple competitive grants including awards from the Department of Defense.

Board-certified by the American Board of Surgery since 2022, Dr. Williams is an active member of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the American Medical Association, the American College of Surgeons, and the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation. He completed his education and training at Hanover College, the University of Kentucky, the University of Michigan, and Duke University.

To learn more about the ISHLT Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions and to register, visit:
ISHLT Website