UAB Division of Surgical Transplantation Associate Professor Paige Porrett, M.D., Ph.D, has been awarded an R01 grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for her project entitled "Tissue-resident NK cell development and function in pregnancy and transplantation: lessons learned from human uterine transplant recipients." The award will continue until 2029 and totals about $3 million in funding.

Porrett has made significant contributions to the field of uterus transplantation. At UAB, she initiated the fourth uterus transplant program in the United States and has since become a respected national and international leader in this field. Porrett currently leads an NIH-funded immunology laboratory aiming to improve outcomes in pregnancy and transplantation, focused on multiple immune cell subsets, including T-cells, B-cells, and Natural Killer-cells.

"I am proud of the uterine transplantation program we have established at UAB, which is sustained by an important partnership between the Department of Surgery and the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics. This R01 grant is a milestone to be celebrated and a testament to this work's importance to the National Institute of Health," says Porrett. “I am excited to see the progress and developments we make through this program in the next five years.”