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Cooper to receive new NKF award for transplant excellence
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The NKF will present its first award for excellence in kidney transplantation in its history to Matthew Cooper, MD, at the foundation’s 2019 Spring Clinical Meetings.
Cooper is a professor of surgery at Georgetown University School of Medicine and the director of kidney and pancreas transplantation at the Medstar Georgetown Transplant Institute. He is a pioneer in the laparoscopic donor nephrectomy procedure and in paired kidney exchange. He conducts critical work to remove barriers for living organ donors, according to a press release.
“We are so pleased to bestow Dr. Cooper with the National Kidney Foundation’s first award in kidney transplantation,” Holly Kramer, MD, NKF president said in the release. “His work and extensive commitment to helping kidney patients leads to increased transplants, fewer people on dialysis and lives saved.”
The award has been established “to recognize a scientist or clinician scientist whose exceptional research has contributed novel insights in or resulted in improved access to kidney transplantation,” the NKF said in the release. The award has been endowed through a grant from Veloxis Pharmaceuticals.
Cooper is co-chair of the NKF’s Transplantation Task Force to reduce the rate of discarded, deceased-donor kidneys and is involved in several ongoing clinical research projects, primarily with an interest in immunosuppression minimization and amelioration of delayed graft function in kidney allografts following ischemic reperfusion injury.
“I have valued the transformative opportunities my relationship with NKF has provided me,” Cooper said. “As a truly patient-centered organization, NKF consistently seeks to provide those with CKD and [ESRD] opportunities for not only a longer lifespan but an overall improvement in their quality of life.”
Cooper serves on NKF’s national board of directors, as well as the local advisory board for the NKF serving the National Capital Area. He has served as the chair of the United Network of Organ Sharing’s Living Donor Committee and currently acts as the councilor for UNOS Region 2 and sits on its board of directors. In addition to NKF, he is a board member for the American Foundation for Donation and Transplantation, the International Pancreas and Islet Cell Transplant Association, the National Kidney Registry, Donate Life America and the local OPO-Washington regional transplant community.
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