The American Transplant Congress (ATC) awarded Cozette Killian, M.D. MPH, General Surgery Research Resident and UAB Transplant Epidemiology and Analytics in Medicine (TEAM) lab member, the Young Investigator Award.

Killian won the 2021 Virtual Connect Young Investigator Award for her abstract, “Living Donor Kidney Transplantation Racial Disparities Persist Independent of Social Vulnerability.” In February, she also received the AST Young Innovator Award for submission of this abstract to the 2021 Cutting Edge of Transplantation meeting.

The TEAM lab’s work demonstrates that while poorer social determinants of health are associated with lower odds of living donor kidney transplantation (LDKT), they do not explain racial disparities in LDKT.

Black kidney transplant recipients and recipients of other races were found to have significantly lower odds of LDKT compared to white counterparts even after accounting for patient- and community-level vulnerability. These data suggest that greater attention to other factors that perpetuate racial inequities in LDKT is needed.

Killian will receive complimentary registration to the 2021 American Transplant Congress on Jun. 4 – 9 to present the abstract. The ATC is jointly hosted by the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS) and the American Society of Transplantation (AST).

Under the mentorship of Jayme Locke, M.D., MPH, director of the Division of Transplantation and the Comprehensive Transplant Institute, TEAM seeks to enhance knowledge within the field of transplantation by conducting complex statistical analyses that model transplant outcomes and practices and behavioral research that focuses on eliminating health disparities in transplantation.

“None of this work would be possible without the tremendous support and guidance from Dr. Locke, the TEAM family, the UAB NRTC and UAB Surgery,” said Killian. “I hope our work will motivate impactful, positive change for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) transplant candidates.”

Founded in 1982, the AST is an organization of more than 4,000 professionals dedicated to advancing the field of transplantation and improving patient care by promoting research, education, advocacy, and organ donation. The society is the largest transplant organization in North America and is recognized as the premier society for transplantation.