Helping adults get the support they need to complete the kidney transplant process
Official title: INSPIRE: INterventionS for Promoting kIdney tRansplant Empowerment
Funded at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai · NIH-11370842 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This program builds patient- and caregiver-informed supports to help adults with kidney failure complete the steps needed to get a kidney transplant and fair access to waitlisting.
Quick facts
| Grant type | U01 cooperative agreement |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (New York, United States) |
| Project start | September 1, 2023 |
| Project end | June 30, 2028 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $1,039,311 |
| NIH project number | 5U01DK137259-03 |
| Project ID | NIH-11370842 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Adults aged 21 and older with end-stage kidney disease who are referred for transplant evaluation or are on dialysis and seeking transplant, along with their caregivers, are the ideal participants.
✕Less likely to help
People under age 21, those not pursuing transplant, or patients not served by participating transplant centers or dialysis clinics may not be eligible or benefit.
What this research studies
You would be invited into a program co-designed by patients, caregivers, clinicians, and health system leaders to address the many barriers that keep people from finishing transplant evaluation and being waitlisted. The team will conduct interviews and use stakeholder workgroups to create a multi-level intervention that targets practical and psychosocial hurdles such as support, finances, and inconsistent evaluation practices. The intervention will be implemented through participating dialysis clinics and transplant centers and tracked across the referral, evaluation, and waitlisting steps. This work builds on two decades of community-engaged research and prior trials to tailor supports for people like you.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, the project could make it easier and fairer for patients to complete transplant evaluations and increase the number who get waitlisted and transplanted.
How similar studies have gone: Previous community-engaged interventions have improved access and outcomes in other settings and some transplant-focused efforts showed promise, but comprehensive multi-level programs to standardize psychosocial evaluation are relatively new.
Where this research is happening
-
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
New York, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Chan, Lili — Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
- Study coordinator: Chan, Lili
Related research
Other NIH-funded projects on the same topics.
-
Microbial clues to diagnose and predict infections in kidney transplant patients
A patient-focused project will look for microbial biomarkers in stool, blood, and urine to help doctors predict and diagnose infections in people who have had a kidney transplant.
-
Immunological mechanisms behind treatment-resistant kidney transplant rejection
This grant explores why certain kidney transplant rejections don’t respond to standard treatments and what immune cells in the graft are driving that resistance.
-
Complement-Bound Exosomes and Kidney Transplant Immunity
This project studies how kidney transplant injury and rejection happen after surgery and whether blocking certain immune pathways during organ preservation could improve transplant outcomes.
-
Blood vessel signals predicting heart problems after kidney transplant
This project studies blood markers and tissue patterns after kidney transplants to identify which patients are at highest risk of cardiovascular problems.
-
Understanding how BK virus links infection to kidney transplant rejection
This project looks at how BK polyomavirus reactivation affects kidney transplant patients and aims to use pre-transplant T cell information to tailor immunosuppression and monitoring.
-
Characterization of a LILRB3 SNP cluster and its link to kidney transplant outcomes
A study in kidney transplant recipients looks at genetic factors that may be tied to higher risk of graft failure.
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.