Transplantation will always be the first and highest use of that gift. But when that precious gift does not find its way to transplantation, we believe donation for research can become another pathway for that gift to continue — by advancing our understanding of disease, improving medicines, and creating hope for patients who come next.

This belief is deeply personal to me.

I lost an aunt to a rare disease when I was 14, at a time when there was no meaningful research donation pathway available to our family. Years later, when I was 18, my uncle became a registered organ donor, but disease burden and logistics meant none of his organs could ultimately be transplanted. I have lived the pain of learning that the gift he had chosen to make could not be carried forward.

When I began working in transplantation, I saw the other side of that same system: patients waiting for organs that never came. One young girl with heart failure stayed with me in particular — remarkably intelligent, doing the nurses’ and doctors’ shift handoffs herself, and waiting for a heart she never received.

OrganNexus was built with that responsibility in mind.