“Almudena and I firmly believe in causes that push boundaries of health and science to improve human health and hope our gift will contribute toward that goal.” —Pablo Legorreta

A surgical team at the Brigham performed the world’s first successful kidney transplant in 1954—pioneering work that helped make the procedure highly effective today. Yet, the global shortage of healthy organs available for transplant keeps many patients from accessing this lifesaving care.

With the goal of dramatically expanding the number of organs considered suitable for transplantation, Pablo and Almudena Legorreta contributed $5 million to the Brigham for innovative kidney transplantation research led by Stefan G. Tullius, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Transplant Surgery and the Murray Distinguished Chair in Transplant Surgery. With this funding, Tullius is working to develop a process to rejuvenate older organs by depleting them of aged cells and effectively restoring the kidneys to a younger state.

“When I first met Dr. Tullius and learned about his work, I became enthralled with the concept of organ rejuvenation,” says Pablo, who is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Royalty Pharma and chairman of both ProKidney and ITB-MED. “Almudena and I firmly believe in causes that push boundaries of health and science to improve human health and hope our gift will contribute toward that goal.”

Tullius and his colleagues have conducted preliminary laboratory studies showing that by ridding kidneys of these problematic older cells, the organs perform as well as young kidneys that could potentially be used for transplants.

Next, the research team will analyze kidneys’ cell composition to explore which specific drugs within a new class of drugs called senolytics work best when applied to the kidney. The team will also determine the optimal dosage and how long the medication would need to be used to rejuvenate the donated kidney.

“Ultimately,” says Tullius, “we will conduct a series of experiments to prepare for and proceed with a clinical trial, using organs for transplant that have been pretreated with senolytics. We are thrilled and thankful for the opportunity that the Legorretas’ gift is enabling to further this work. With nearly 100,000 people in the U.S. alone awaiting kidney transplants, this research could be game changing.”