We are delighted to share that the UKCRC Tissue Directory and Coordination Centre has awarded the Quality in Organ Donation (QUOD) programme first place in the UK Biobank of the Year. We are proud to be charity partners and to contribute to the strategy board of the QUOD biobank, working towards our shared goal of transforming treatments for patients by making more kidneys available for transplant and making transplants last for longer. 

What is the QUOD biobank?

Having a kidney transplant is the best treatment for kidney failure but the demand for donated kidneys is high. To save more lives, doctors are accepting kidneys from older or higher risk donors. These kidneys may work less well after transplantation. But this can be devastating as people receiving them may need to go back on dialysis and wait for another transplant. 

Right now, doctors cannot accurately assess donor kidneys and predict how well a transplant will work or how long a kidney will last after it is transplanted. 

Led by Professor Rutger J Ploeg from the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences at the University of Oxford, the QUOD biobank is a nationwide programme that facilitates research into organ donation and transplantation by providing researchers with samples (e.g. blood, urine and tissue) and clinical data from organ donors. In addition to samples from kidneys, QUOD also collects liver, heart, ureter and spleen samples. 

The award

Organised by the UKCRC Tissue Directory and Coordination Centre, the UK Biobanking Showcase is the UK's leading event for those who work in biobanking and human tissue research and took place online over three days with interesting talks and presentations from biobanks all over the UK. 

Professor Ploeg, director of QUOD and Dr Sarah Cross, National Operational Coordinator of QUOD are delighted with this wonderful achievement. They said: “This award is an important milestone in our pursuit to increase research in donation and transplantation, increasing organ utilisation and providing more and better organs for our patients”. They congratulate the whole QUOD team including the Specialist Nurses in Organ Donation and teams based in the 61 NHS partner trusts across the UK, as well as the core team in Oxford, the Directors of NHS Blood and Transplant, the Medical Research Council and their academic collaborators without whom none of this would have been possible.