It’s a record-breaking donation. The Ajmera family has donated $35 million to the University Health Network to establish a new transplant institute.UHN says the demand for transplants is rising and this donation will help save lives.“The family was affected and touched by transplants. They have been patients at UHN and they wanted, as a family, to do something that was going to be truly transformative,” said Julie Quenneville, the CEO of UHN Foundation.The gift brings the Ajmera family’s total contributions to UHN to $62 million.The new Ajmera Transplant Institute at University Health Network will bring together specialists in transplant care, research and innovation, with the goal of improving outcomes for patients before and after surgery.UHN is already a global leader in transplant medicine, performing a record-breaking 820 transplants in 2025-2026, including the most lung transplants of anywhere in the world, and the new institute is expected to build on that work.“Right now we’re working on eliminating immunosuppressants so that patients can live post-transplant without all those side effects,” explained Quenneville. “We’re working on making every organ a universal donor so that we can use more organs and provide access to more patients. We did here at UHN the very first lung transplant. We did the very first double-lung transplant.”The investment also comes as demand for organ transplants continues, with patients relying on medical advances to improve their chances of survival and recovery.Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who joined healthcare leaders at Wednesday’s announcement, says investments like this are important to the province’s healthcare system.“This new institute is going to bring together global experts pioneering advanced research while helping UHN reach its ambitious goal of 1,000 life-saving organ transplants every single year,” he said in prepared remarks.UHN Foundation is also launching a broader $100 million campaign to support transplant medicine, with a focus on advancing discoveries that could benefit patients in Canada and around the world.“We’re trying to raise awareness for UHN and why people should get involved and why it’s important. Usually people find out a little too late that it’s important and why they need it. So, we’re trying to tell people about it before that happens,” said Adam Halpern of Halpern Enterprises.UHN says the institute will build on Toronto’s reputation as a global leader in transplant medicine while helping save lives and improving patient outcomes.