UCLA Receives $6.7 Million Grant to Expand Groundbreaking Kidney Transplant Trial That Eliminates Immunosuppressive Drugs
Key Insights
UCLA's Dr. Jeffrey Veale received a $6.7 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (search) to expand a clinical trial using delayed immune tolerance to eliminate lifelong immunosuppressive drugs (search) in kidney transplant patients.
The phase 1/2 trial has shown early success with three of six patients completely off immunosuppressive medications after receiving donor-derived stem cell infusions months or years post-transplant.
The expanded trial will open to patients who received kidney transplants up to 20 years ago starting January 2026, potentially transforming transplant care from chronic disease management to a cure.
UCLA researchers have achieved a potential breakthrough in kidney transplant care, with Dr. Jeffrey Veale receiving a $6.7 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (search) to expand a clinical trial that could eliminate the need for lifelong immunosuppressive drugs (search) in transplant recipients.
The innovative approach, called delayed immune tolerance, involves infusing donor-derived blood stem cells months or even years after a kidney transplant to retrain the recipient's immune system (search). Of the six patients treated in the phase 1/2 trial to date, three are completely off immunosuppressive drugs (search), while the others are on reduced doses or successfully tapering.
Revolutionary Treatment Approach
Veale's method creates a state known as chimerism, where donor stem cells (search) integrate into the recipient's bone marrow (search) and immune system (search), forming a mixed population of donor and recipient immune cells. This biological integration helps the recipient's immune system recognize the transplanted kidney as "self," reducing rejection risk and eliminating the need for ongoing immunosuppressive medications.
"This could be the difference between managing end-stage renal disease (search) as a chronic condition and actually curing it," said Veale, professor of urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and member of the UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center. "A kidney transplant takes recipients most of the way there, but patients say being able to get off immunosuppressive drugs (search) feels like truly being cured."
Patient Success Stories
Karina Ledesma, 26, exemplifies the treatment's potential impact. After experiencing troubling side effects from immunosuppressive medications for nearly a year following her kidney transplant from her sister—including insomnia, burning sensations in her fingers and toes, and the constant burden of taking pills at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.—she enrolled in the trial.
"It was such a relief to finally throw all the drugs away," said Ledesma. "I didn't need to keep them here. I didn't need to see them every day as a reminder. Tossing them all out was just a really great feeling."
Expanding Treatment Access
The clinical trial currently focuses on patients with close-sibling matches who received transplants within the last five years. Starting in January 2026, the expanded trial will open to patients who have had kidney transplants up to 20 years ago, significantly broadening treatment eligibility.
The new grant will fund enrollment of 10 additional patients and support research into the biological mechanisms underlying immune tolerance. This research aims to identify biomarkers that could predict which patients are most likely to benefit from the treatment.
Addressing Critical Medical Need
Immunosuppressive medications, while essential for transplant success, carry serious and sometimes life-threatening side effects including infections, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. These drugs can also damage the very organ they're meant to protect.
"These immunosuppressive drugs (search) have not changed in decades," Veale explained. "They're expensive, impair the recipient's quality of life and decrease graft survival. Once patients start taking them, it's just a matter of time until they'll need another transplant."
The statistics underscore the urgent need for alternatives: approximately half of all kidney transplants fail within 15 years, and many of the 90,000 people currently waiting for a kidney in the U.S. are heading for their second, third, or fourth transplant.
Scalable Treatment Model
Unlike earlier protocols requiring simultaneous kidney and stem cell transplants, Veale's delayed approach offers significant practical advantages. The stem cell infusion can be performed on an outpatient basis without straining hospital resources, and patients who received transplants elsewhere can still benefit.
"The beauty of doing it in a delayed fashion is that it takes all the pressure off the hospital," said Veale. "The transplant has already occurred, whether it was done at UCLA or in another part of the world. Now the patient just comes in for an outpatient conditioning regimen and stem cell infusion. They get their treatment in the morning and are out and about in the afternoon. That's what makes it so scalable."
Future Research Directions
The CIRM funding will enable Veale's team to analyze blood and tissue samples from trial participants, examining changes in immune cell populations, cytokine profiles, and signs of donor cells persisting in transplanted organs. These investigations could reveal biomarkers to predict treatment response and guide future trial designs.
"We really don't fully understand the immunology behind it," Veale noted. "For example, we've seen patients lose all signs of donor stem cells (search) over time and yet remain tolerant and off their medications. That tells us something deeper is happening—maybe the donor stem cells re-educate the recipient's immune system (search) and leave a footprint we can't yet detect."
Broader Implications
Currently limited to patients with well-matched sibling donors, Veale hopes understanding tolerance mechanisms will enable treatment expansion to patients with less compatible donors and other organ transplant types, including liver transplants.
"Right now, only a select group of patients qualify for this therapy," said Veale, who also directs the UCLA Kidney Exchange Program. "But if we can understand why tolerance works at the cellular level, we may be able to offer it to patients with less well-matched donors—or even extend it to liver and other transplants. That's what makes this research so exciting. It's not just about improving outcomes—it's about unlocking immune tolerance for many more patients."