Improving the Body's Acceptance of a New Heart
Project 3: Enhanced Costimulation Blockade to Achieve Clinically Relevant Heart Allograft Tolerance
This project looks for new ways to help your body accept a transplanted heart so you might need fewer strong medications.
Quick facts
| Grant type | P01 program project |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Massachusetts General Hospital NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Boston, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11140420 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
This project aims to find better strategies to help patients' bodies accept a new heart after a transplant. Currently, individuals need powerful medications to prevent the body from rejecting the new organ, which can come with significant side effects. Researchers are exploring innovative combinations of treatments that could teach the immune system to tolerate the new heart, potentially reducing the need for these lifelong medications. This involves testing different approaches to block specific immune responses and enhance the body's natural ability to accept the donor organ. The ultimate goal is to make heart transplants more successful and improve the long-term health and quality of life for patients.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal candidates would be individuals who have received or are awaiting a heart transplant and are interested in advanced immune tolerance strategies.
Not a fit: Patients who are not candidates for heart transplantation or who are not seeking to reduce their anti-rejection medication burden may not directly benefit from this specific research.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this research could lead to heart transplant patients needing fewer anti-rejection medications, improving their long-term health and reducing side effects.
How similar studies have performed: Previous work by this team has shown promising results in animal models, achieving long-term heart transplant tolerance.
Where this research is happening
Boston, United States
- Massachusetts General Hospital — Boston, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Pierson, Richard N — Massachusetts General Hospital
- Study coordinator: Pierson, Richard N
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 below.