Immune Monitoring and Assay Development in Organ Transplant Recipients

The purpose of this study to develop a well-characterized library of blood, biopsy tissue, and urine samples from transplant patients. Subjects without transplants will also be enrolled for comparison. Samples will be used to study the characteristics of patients undergoing transplantation that influence their response to transplant therapies and their reactions to drugs used in transplantation. This knowledge is important as it helps physicians design new drugs and tailor transplant therapies to the individual thereby reducing the side effects. In this study, people will be asked to donate blood, biopsy tissue and urine. Donation of these samples will not influence patients' treatments. These samples will be tested using a variety of biological tests to better understand how immunosuppressive drugs change the various components of the immune system. The tests will be for research only; no changes in an individual's treatment will be based on the results of tests performed in this study. If there is extra sample, the sample will be stored for use in other testing at a later date. The ultimate goal is find the right combination of medications for each individual patient while keeping their new organ working well. This study is a first step in that direction by perfecting tests used to characterize a patient's immune system

Inclusion Criteria: * Recipients of or candidates for organ transplantation or organ donors for recipients under evaluation at Emory University or CHOA * Normal volunteers to include individuals without any known end-stage organ disease who are not on any immunosuppressive medication, and individuals with conditions requiring immunosuppression (i.e. dermatological diseases) that do not require transplant therapies * Ability to understand the purposes and risks of the study and willingly give written informed consent, or in the case of minors, ability to give minor assent (children older than 5 years of age), in conjunction with written guardian consent Exclusion Criteria: * Patients who fail to meet the criteria for transplantation or post-transplant follow-up by Emory or Children's Healthcare of Atlanta physicians * Any condition that, in the opinion of the attending physician, would place the patient at undue risk by participating. Specific conditions include but are not limited to anemia prohibitive of phlebotomy, coagulopathy or technical considerations that would prevent acquisition of sufficient tissue on biopsy for clinical use, or medical urgency preventing timely administration of the consenting process.