Research Group
- Dr John Iacomini, Principal Investigator
- Dr Stephan Tullius, Co-Investigator
- Dr Kristin Stephan, Research Fellow
- Dr Xueng Ge, Research Fellow
- Mr Jonathan Godwin, Technician
- Ms Lisa Willis, Clinical Coordinator
Location
- Brigham and Women’s Hospital Transplantation Research Center, Boston, USA
Title
- Development of Novel Tools to Diagnose Kidney Injury in Transplantation
Some of the major unresolved issues in transplantation revolve around developing tools to diagnose organ rejection. In our laboratory, we have identified a molecular fingerprint of kidney injury based on differential expression of microRNAs, a recently discovered class of small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. These data led us to hypothesize that microRNA expression profiles could therefore be used to diagnose kidney-intrinsic changes resulting from rejection in the context of kidney transplantation. In this proposal, we will examine whether differential expression of microRNAs can be used as a biomarker of kidney injury in the context of transplantation. The experiments in this proposal are highly relevant to organ transplantation because they lay the groundwork for the development of novel diagnostic tools that might allow one to predict rejection episodes, gain insight into gene regulation in the context of organ injury, and uncover new molecular pathways that can be targeted to prevent organ rejection as well as promote recovery following rejection episodes.
Progress Report
Final Report
