Donor-derived thymus organoids for personalized immunomodulation in kidney transplantation
After a kidney transplant, patients need to take strong medications—called immunosuppressants—to stop their body from rejecting the new organ. While these drugs are essential, they can cause serious side effects such as infections and cancer, and they need to be taken for life.
In this research, we are developing a new cell‑based therapy that could one day reduce or even replace the need for these drugs.
This research proposes collecting urine cells from kidney transplant recipients and use them to create special stem cells called donor‑derived induced pluripotent stem cells (ddiPSCs). These stem cells can be turned into almost any type of cell in the body and carry the same genetic information as the donor organ.
Our goal is to use the ddiPSCs to make a small organ called the thymus, which helps train the immune system to recognize the body’s own tissues as “safe.”
By providing a thymus made from donor cells, we hope the recipient’s immune system will learn to accept the donor organ naturally without relying so heavily on immunosuppressive drugs.
If successful, this approach could make kidney transplantation safer, reduce complications, and greatly improve the quality of life for transplant recipients. It would also help transplanted kidneys last longer without rejection, meaning "one transplant for life".
