Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center received a $5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the effects of a genetic variation in donors that appears to contribute to positive kidney transplant outcomes.
The medical center will use the two-year grant to evaluate donor and recipient apolipoprotein L1, proteins that bind lipids, and their renal-risk variants to determine their effect on transplant outcomes.
The grant will also establish a collaborative network called the APOL1 Long-term Transplantation Outcomes Network.
"Findings from [this] study have the potential to alter clinical practice by increasing the numbers of kidneys available for transplantation and improving matching of kidneys with recipients to extend post-transplant kidney function," said Barry Freedman, MD, nephrologists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.