Rogosin is the lead organization for a $7.5 million collaborative grant from the NIH. “We are working with investigators at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the University of Alabama at Birmingham to see if we can create kidney tissue in the lab and then test its functionality,” says Leif Oxburgh, PhD, Scientific Director & Vice President for Basic and Clinical Research, Rogosin Institute. 

This grant is funding a long-term project. “Our first goal, which will take about five years, is to understand, using laboratory trials, if this has potential for use in the clinic,” says Dr. Oxburgh. “If the answer is yes, it could take another 15 years for patients to be able to benefit from the research. The ultimate goal is to create kidney tissue that can augment kidney function.  Rogosin is extremely successful in capturing people early in their chronic kidney disease before they need dialysis or transplantation.  If we can augment kidney function by even 20%, it could extend patients’ path to dialysis by several years.”