The German Research Foundation - DFG approved the establishment of a new Clinical Research Unit "Lung Transplantation" on 5 December 2003.

Speaker: Professor Dr. Axel Haverich, Head: Prof. Dr. Ulrich Martin, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Hannover Medical School


DFG Press Release No. 6, 8 December 2003
Lung transplants continue to be the only treatment which promises a cure for patients suffering from serious diseases to this organ. However, a lack of donor organs means that almost one third of all patients die before the life-saving operation can be carried out. Yet patients who have had a lung transplant also have much lower average post-operational life expectancy than heart transplant patients, for example. The newly established Clinical Research Unit "Lung Transplantation" at the Hannover School of Medicine is doing research into how alternative approaches can help to improve the situation of lung patients, for example by obtaining donor organs or using stem-cell based therapies to stop organ rejection.


The German Research Foundation (DFG) Bonn extended the Clinical Research Unit ‘Lung transplantation’ (KFO 123).

The authorising committee of the German Research Foundation (DFG) agreed in December 2006 to the prolongation of the Clinical Research Unit ‘Lung transplantation’ (KFO 123). The new promotion period began on 1st January 2007; altogether 10 projects will be promoted with 1.461.350 euro in the next 3 years.