Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center announced last week the formation of the first interdisciplinary transplant research center in New England. Anthony P. Monaco, Medawar Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, will be the center’s first director.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is an affiliated teaching, clinical and research facility of HMS hospital.

According to Monaco, the center performs the largest number of transplant surgeries in New England, between 120 and 130 per year.

Monaco said the center is unique in its interdisciplinary goal, concentrating on all aspects of transplant surgery, but especially recovery and therapy.

"We hope to advance each and every organ transplant therapy, to make it more successful, more efficient. We expect to develop new transplant therapies and do cutting edge research on therapy and all aspects of immunobiology," Monaco said.

Once considered experimental, transplant surgery is increasingly viewed as mainstream medicine. Most insurance companies now cover kidney, heart and liver transplants, but while the surgery itself is becoming routine, prospects for long-term success are not always as high.

"Transplant surgery is getting to be the easiest part of it. The problems are with rejection and immunology," Monaco said.

Monaco, who said he was honored to be the center's first director, also said the center will also help researchers compete for transplant research funding more efficiently and effectively.

"I consider it an enormous honor and I consider it a fantastic opportunity," he said.

Monaco is a former president of the International Transplantation Society and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and is also the editor of the journal Transplantation.