The National Institute of Health awarded Emory Transplant Center researchers $12.6 million over five years to investigate improved post-transplant drug regimens for organ transplant recipients.
The Emory Transplant Center research team is led by Professor of Surgery, Christian Larsen, MD, DPhil, and includes Mandy Ford, PhD, and Andrew Adams, MD, PhD. Leslie Kean, MD, PhD, from Seattle Children’s Hospital and the University of Washington is also part of the investigative team. The research is a continuation of Larsen’s previous work, undertaken with Emory Transplant Center Executive Director and Professor of Surgery, Thomas Pearson, MD, PhD, on costimulation blockers – drugs to prevent immune rejection of transplanted organs.
Past Emory Transplant Center Research
Together with Bristol-Myers Squibb, Larsen and Pearson developed a costimulation blocker called belatacept. It was shown in a multi-center clinical trial to improve graft survival and mortality rates in kidney transplant patients, in comparison with calcineurin inhibitors, the standard of care in the past. However, in these studies, acute rejection rates were higher with those receiving belatacept than with calcineurin inhibitors.
