Jordan, the director of Nephrology and medical director of the Cedars-Sinai Kidney Transplant Program, is widely admired for pioneering immunomodulatory therapies—treatments that regulate or suppress the body’s immune system so that it does not reject a transplanted donor organ. Jordan, also the director of Cedars-Sinai’s Human Leukocyte Antigen and Transplant Immunology Laboratory, led the development of therapies aimed at overcoming blood type incompatibility between donors and recipients. 

“Dr. Jordan’s groundbreaking contributions to transplant immunology have fundamentally changed the field and improved the lives of countless patients,” said Irene Kim, MD, director of the Comprehensive Transplant Center at Cedars-Sinai. “This well-deserved honor acknowledges Dr. Jordan’s significant scientific contributions to solid organ transplantation. We are fortunate that such a world-renowned scientific leader represents our transplant center and our institution.”

Jordan is an expert in plasmapheresis, a procedure he pioneered at Cedars-Sinai to reduce transplant rejection by removing harmful antibodies from the blood of kidney transplant recipients. When combined with other therapies, this protocol can enable organ transplantation in a patient who may otherwise have been ineligible.

Jordan also developed intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) therapy, which adds helpful antibodies to a transplant patient’s blood—calming the immune system to lower the chance of organ rejection without suppressing the entire immune system.

“I am deeply honored and grateful to receive this special recognition from the American Society of Transplantation,” Jordan said. “It is reflective of the many remarkable people who have shaped my journey—mentors, leaders and my dedicated colleagues at Cedars-Sinai, whose commitment to improving transplant outcomes continues to inspire me. At the heart of it all, our greatest reward is helping patients reclaim their lives. Receiving this award is icing on the cake.”

Jordan decided to become a doctor at 5 years old, when he was hospitalized with polio for four months. Temporarily paralyzed below the waist and surrounded by others ill with the virus, he was cared for by an especially kind medical intern and compassionate doctors and nurses.

“That’s what I want to do,” he remembers thinking at the time. “That’s who I want to be like.”

Two decades later, while completing his immunology fellowship at Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, California, Jordan had a chance encounter with local virologist and researcher Jonas Salk, MD—the inventor of the polio vaccine.

“What an inspiration,” Jordan said, “to go from being in the cauldron of death and human suffering caused by polio to meeting the person who had a positive impact on so many lives by eradicating the virus.”

Meeting Salk bolstered Jordan’s desire to devote his career to clinical care and translational research.

In 1990, Jordan’s research led to Cedars-Sinai performing the first successful kidney transplant from a nonmatching donor after the recipient was treated with one of the antirejection techniques Jordan developed.

Jordan went on to create the Transplant Immunotherapy Program at Cedars-Sinai in 2004. Today the medical center is known for transplant patient care and research and is an international referral center for transplant patients who need antirejection therapies.

Jordan has received numerous honors in addition to the Lifetime Achievement Award, including the prestigious 2020 Medawar Prize from The Transplantation Society.

“It’s a great feeling to know that I’ve done something good with my life,” Jordan said after accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award. “I wake up every morning excited to go to work and gratified that we are helping make more people’s lives better. I never could have imagined a life like this.”

Read more on the Cedars-Sinai Blog: Making Kidney Transplants Possible for More Patients

 In 2021, Emerson and a team of Cedars-Sinai surgeons performed the world’s first robotic lung transplant. Since then, the medical center has completed the most robotic lung transplants in the world. The innovation uses tiny incisions to reduce pain, complications and recovery time.

Emerson, associate professor of Cardiac Surgery in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai, will further strengthen and unify the thoracic and abdominal transplant arms of the Comprehensive Transplant Center, which ranks among the top 10 in the U.S. by volume. Emerson was also recently appointed program director of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education thoracic surgery residency and fellowship programs at Cedars-Sinai, an important role overseeing the education and training of junior surgeons. 

“Dr. Emerson’s leadership helped guide our teams to perform more transplants in 2024 than we ever have before, all while achieving exceptional patient outcomes,” said Irene Kim, MD, director of the Cedars-Sinai Comprehensive Transplant Center and the Esther and Mark Schulman Chair in Surgery and Transplantation Medicine.

Emerson will continue as associate surgical director of Heart Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support, director of Robotic Cardiac Surgery, and director of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Fellowship Program. In addition, Emerson is on the editorial board of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

“It’s an honor to help give the opportunity for a longer life to the many people around the world who are desperate for a heart or lung transplant, as well as those patients in need of specialized cardiac surgery,” Emerson said.

Emerson’s research lab focuses on advanced machine perfusion techniques that better preserve and reduce damage to organs before they’re transplanted, which can boost success rates and improve the rates of transplants. His most notable contributions include a landmark study of lung transplantation for end-stage COVID-19 lung disease, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and a national analysis of how devices that assist the heart called LVADs can improve outcomes in older adult patients, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Additionally, Emerson and Cedars-Sinai colleagues are leading the creation of a multi-institutional registry to better understand the benefits of robotic lung transplant.

“Dr. Emerson has been a remarkable colleague and role model for the cardiac surgery team,” said Joanna Chikwe, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Cardiac Surgery and the Irina and George Schaeffer Distinguished Chair in Cardiac Surgery in the Smidt Heart Institute. “He also is a patient, kind and gifted teacher, training many surgeons who have gone on to lead successful transplant programs.”

Emerson’s research has been published in more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Circulation, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, and Circulation: Heart Failure.

Emerson earned his undergraduate degree and medical degree from the University of Washington. He completed his general surgery residency at Georgetown University Hospital and completed fellowships in cardiothoracic surgery and thoracic transplantation at Cedars-Sinai. He joined the Cedars-Sinai faculty in 2019.

Read more on the Cedars-Sinai Blog: The Wait for a New Heart

Cedars-Sinai is among the top 10 transplant centers in the U.S. by volume, according to published data from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), and is known for accepting complex, high-risk cases.

“Behind every transplant is a patient who desperately waited for a chance at life,” said Irene Kim, MD, director of the Cedars-Sinai Comprehensive Transplant Center. “It is the remarkable generosity of organ donors and their families that allowed our transplant teams to give 682 patients the chance to have longer and healthier lives.”

Cedars-Sinai’s organ transplant program has experienced a 64% year-over-year increase since 2017, when 415 transplants were performed. Over the last decade, its transplant volume has increased by 84%, from 371 in 2014 to 682 in 2024.

Multiple drivers are behind the upward trend in organ transplants at Cedars-Sinai and nationwide, said Kim, the Esther and Mark Schulman Chair in Surgery and Transplantation Medicine.

“Machine perfusion techniques are allowing us to use donor organs that may previously have been less ideal for transplant,” Kim said. “The technology helps preserve organs before transplantation, lengthening viability, improving assessment of organ function and contributing to improved patient outcomes.”

According to the OPTN, 48,149 transplants occurred in the U.S. in 2024—more than in any other year.

But the need for more organs remains significant: More than 100,000 people in the U.S. are on the organ transplant waiting list, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, the nonprofit organization that manages the U.S. organ transplant system.

Multiple collaborations among various sectors are underway to increase organ donations in an effort to reach a new national goal: 60,000 deceased donor transplants annually in the U.S. by the end of 2026.  

New Records in Heart, Liver and Lung Transplants

The Department of Cardiac Surgery in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai is home to the largest thoracic organ transplant program by volume in California and the second-largest heart transplant center by volume in the U.S. 

The team, including Joanna Chikwe, MD, chair of the Department of Cardiac Surgery, Fardad Esmailian, MD, surgical director of the Heart Transplant Program, and Jon Kobashigawa, MD, director of the Heart Transplant Program in the Department of Cardiology, led the clinical and surgical teams that performed 137 adult heart transplants, including three heart-lung transplants, surpassing the 2023 record of 132. 

The lung transplant team, led by surgical director Dominick Megna, MD, and medical director Reinaldo Rampolla, MD, also reached a new milestone in 2024 with 88 lungs transplanted (including three heart-lung transplants), up from 82 in 2023. More than a quarter were completed using minimally invasive procedures—2- to 3-inch incisions that lead to reduced pain, recovery times and complications after surgery. Nine percent of minimally invasive lung transplant surgeries at Cedars-Sinai—more than that of any other program in the world—were robotic-assisted.

The liver transplant team, led by Kim, surgical director of the Liver Transplant Program, and Alexander Kuo, MD, professor of Medicine and medical director of the Liver Transplant Program, performed 136 liver transplants in 2024, exceeding the 2021 record of 113 transplants.

The Kidney Transplant Program team, led by Stanley Jordan, MD, medical director of the Comprehensive Transplant Center’s Human Leukocyte Antigen and Transplant Immunology Laboratory, and Tsuyoshi Todo, MD, surgical director, completed 324 transplants in 2024, including five pancreas-kidney transplants. In 2023, the program set a record with 336 kidney transplants performed.

Kim emphasized that the expertise and dedication of Cedars-Sinai’s multidisciplinary transplant teams—physicians, nurses, social workers, pharmacists, physician assistants, dietitians, technicians, perfusionists, researchers, administrative professionals and others—are what enable transplants for so many patients.

“They are the ultimate caregivers,” Kim said. “And it is the organ donors and their families who represent ultimate altruism. They are the foundation that gives others an opportunity at life.”

Read more on the Cedars-Sinai Blog: The Wait for a New Heart

Cedars-Sinai, part of a national multicenter consortium, will be responsible for developing protocols for the procurement and preservation of donor tissue as well as the eye transplant surgeries themselves. The Cedars-Sinai effort is being led by Curtis L. Cetrulo Jr., MD, vice chair of Research in the Jim and Eleanor Randall Department of Surgery and director of the Division of Plastic Surgery at Cedars-Sinai.

“Vision loss affects over 7 million Americans and this award represents an opportunity to really move the needle in our treatment of blindness. With this funding, I’m confident we can make progress toward eye transplantation,” Cetrulo said. “As the only clinically active vascularized composite allotransplantation program approved for face and eye transplantation on the West Coast, we are in a unique position to design the protocols that will allow for successful optic nerve connection and regeneration. We will also be addressing preservation of the donor eye tissue in transit to safeguard the optic nerve and retina, which are very sensitive to periods of decreased blood flow.”

Cedars-Sinai joins several partners, including the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, the effort’s primary award recipient. The other partners are Johns Hopkins University, University of Wisconsin, Indiana University, University of Southern California, the National Eye Institute and the Foundation for Fighting Blindness. The ARPA-H funding for the project totals up to $46 million, with up to $6 million dedicated to Cedars-Sinai’s clinical surgical efforts.

ARPA-H is a federal agency established to advance high-potential, high-impact biomedical and health research that cannot be readily accomplished through traditional research or commercial activity. 

In its clinical transplantation practice, Cedars-Sinai will employ the robotic Symani Surgical System, which was recently acquired by the hospital. Currently, Cedars-Sinai is the only institution on the West Coast utilizing this new and highly specialized robotic microsurgery technology, which scales down the surgeon’s movements significantly for extreme precision.

“This is just another example of how the Department of Surgery at Cedars-Sinai strives to be at the forefront of the most innovative and life-changing procedures,” said Cristina Ferrone, MD, chair of the Department of Surgery at Cedars-Sinai and the Linda and Jim Lippman Chair in Surgical Oncology. “The work our team is doing on this project has the potential to transform clinical practice and impact the lives of millions of people around the globe.”

Cedars-Sinai is a leader in treating eye disease with novel approaches. Previously, Clive Svendsen, PhD, professor of Biomedical Sciences and Medicine and executive director of the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute, received a $10.5 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to launch a clinical trial testing treatments for retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited eye disease with no known cure.

Read more from the Cedars-Sinai Blog: Pioneering Advances in Surgery

found that a monoclonal antibody treatment reduced the risk of COVID-19 in a large group of solid organ transplant patients who were administered the drug as a preventive measure against the disease.

The study, recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Transplant Infectious Disease, analyzed data from 911 solid organ transplant patients, 381 of whom had received at least one dose of the monoclonal antibody treatment tixagevimab−cilgavimab. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provided emergency-use authorization for the monoclonal antibody treatment in the fight against COVID-19 in immuno-compromised patients from December 2021 through January 2023.

“In this group of transplant patients, we found that the antibody reduced infection risk even amidst emergent Omicron subvariants,” said Stanley Jordan, MD, medical director of the Comprehensive Transplant Center’s Human Leukocyte Antigen and Transplant Immunology Laboratory and study author.

“Additionally, we concluded that pre-exposure monoclonal antibody therapy likely represents a therapeutic strategy that will continue to offer clinical benefit for immuno-compromised persons who are known to derive limited protection from vaccinations,” noted Jordan.

Solid organ transplant patients often receive antibody treatments designed to deplete T-cells and B-cells before their transplant, and they remain on long-term immuno-suppression after their procedure, as well, to reduce the risk of the body rejecting the new organ.

Because of this, transplant patients do not have a strong antibody response to COVID-19 vaccinations, making them particularly susceptible to contracting the disease due to lack of immunity. If infected with SARS-CoV-2—the virus that causes COVID-19—this patient population is often at the highest risk for severe, life-threatening disease.

“Our message is that these transplant patients are still at risk for severe outcomes, even if vaccinated,” said study author Susan Cheng, MD, MPH, the Erika J. Glazer Chair in Women’s Cardiovascular Health and Population Science and director of the Institute for Research on Healthy Aging in the Department of Cardiology in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai. “We are hopeful that a replacement group of monoclonals will soon be approved by the FDA.”

To limit the risk of COVID-19 infection, study investigators recommend that solid organ transplant patients continue to wear masks in public places and avoid contact with individuals who are coughing or have had known contact with patients who have COVID-19.

Read more from the Cedars-Sinai Blog: COVID-19: What to Know About SARS-CoV-2 Reinfection