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TEAM ORGAN MARCH 27TH, 2009 Sara Moghaddam-Taaheri 1. SPECIFIC AIMS Though nearly 110,000 people are on the organ transplant waiting list, only 77 people receive organ transplants daily. The time an organ can remain outside the body plays a crucial role in the organ transplantation system. The current viability of hearts is limited to a mere four to six hours, due to the limitations of the common cold storage method. This limitation influences several key decisions, such as where a heart can be transported to, or where the surgery can be conducted. Current methods of cold static storage have reached their limits in storage time due to the extent of ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury induced during static cold storage. The extent of reperfusion injury is directly proportional to preservation time in cold storage, and research has shown that with static storage methods, heart storage time will not exceed six hours. This essentially means that the demands of the organ transplant list will not be met.