French and European programmes support kidney transplant research
A few months ago, Mrs Agnès Buzyn, French Minister of Solidarity and Health, announced a €9 million grant to French kidney transplant research teams to advance understanding of the immunological mechanisms of kidney transplants and improve their results. This grant is part of the Future Investment Programme initiated by the Government in 2010. On top of that, the European Commission granted €6.6 million to the European Transplantation and Innovation Consortium for Risk Stratification in Kidney Transplant Patients: the EU-Train project was born. Why is such support for kidney transplantation necessary? For people with chronic kidney failure, the only way to escape the constraints of dialysis is kidney transplantation, which is also the most cost-effective treatment. Less than 4,000 patients benefit from it each year, while nearly 1,500 people are still waiting. The widespread use of organ donation only partially helps to solve this graft deficit. It is with a great commitment that researchers, nephrologists and transplant surgeons are seeking to respond to this organ shortage by customising the follow-up of transplant recipients. Only by improving graft survival will this long list of people waiting for a kidney transplant be reduced. Towards a personalised follow-up of the transplanted person The Future Investment Program enables Parisian university hospital research and kidney transplant centres, particularly the AP-HP, and regional teams (hospitals from Bordeaux, Montpellier, Nantes, Lyon, Toulouse, etc.) to identify all the mechanisms altering the function of kidney transplantation. The approach to transplantation research is unique in the world because it is based on a global vision of the patient that combines clinical, biological, anatomopathological, immunological and molecular data. The research projects selected by the Programme d'Investissements d'Avenir testify to French excellence in this field. They are regularly published in major international scientific journals, particularly in the United States. France is a true leader in kidney transplantation in Europe and worldwide. Patients with renal insufficiency should benefit from this research by 2022. The Parisian teams of the AP-HP, in association with European research centres, are working on the development of software to monitor the immune response of the kidney transplant after transplantation. Europe is providing €6.6 million for the design of this tool. In a few years, knowledge and prediction of transplant success have improved significantly. With this new support from the French government and Europe, nephrology and kidney transplantation are taking off. France can already expect individualisation of treatments and a significant improvement in the survival of kidney transplants.
Keywords
Transplantation, renal graft, World day, Kidney, renal, organ gift, nephrology, funding, public health, healthcare, medicine, research
Countries
France