Research Awards Recipients

Lay Abstract

Kidney transplantation is the ideal treatment for patients whose kidneys fail. Unfortunately, there are not enough kidneys to transplant all patients on the waiting list. Kidney shortage leads to physicians and surgeons taking kidneys that are more injured at the time of transplant. Such kidneys do not work immediately and tend not to work for the rest of the recipient’s life. We are developing treatments that will be delivered before the kidney is transplanted and that will make the kidneys last longer. I am an investigator from the University Health Network in Toronto, with expertise in molecular and systems biology. I am also a kidney transplant physician, and I have an understanding of the clinical problems faced by transplant recipients. With a team of other scientists, surgeons, and pathologists, I have recently identified a potential mechanism of kidney graft repair. We have designed a study that will take advantage of this repair mechanism and test a specific drug called N-trans caffeoyltyramine, that may be given to the kidney before transplanting it into a patient, with the goal of repairing the kidney. PROCEDURE: In this proposal, we will examine if a drug called N-trans caffeoyltyramine will protect kidney cells from injury. We will also determine if N-trans caffeoyltyramine can reduce kidney injury in a mouse model that mimics the type of injury that takes place at the time of transplantation. OUTCOME: We expect that our drug N-trans caffeoyltyramine will reduce kidney injury and improve kidney function in a pre-clinical model. RELEVANCE TO PATIENTS: The results of our study have the potential to impact patients with kidney transplant, through better understanding of the early injury in the kidney, and through identification of a potential new therapy. The findings of our study are also relevant to native kidney disease and to other transplanted organs. That means that our project has broad potential applications.