Tolerance
Kidney transplantation is the most effective treatment for patients with advanced chronic kidney disease. However, organ transplantation inevitably leads to rejection, necessitating lifelong immunosuppressive therapies. While essential to prevent rejection, these therapies often come with significant side effects. Our research focuses on educating the immune system to accept the kidney allograft without the need for immunosuppression—a concept known as tolerance. Achieving tolerance is the ultimate goal of transplantation immunology. To date, the only strategy that has demonstrated to be effective to achieve tolerance in patients is the combined bone marrow and kidney transplantation from the same donor. However, current protocols to induce tolerance have proven reliable only in selected cases and are associated with potential risks. We contributed to the first tolerance protocol for HLA-identical kidney transplantation in Europe. Additionally, we pioneered the introduction of BCL2 inhibitors in experimental models of tolerance. Looking ahead, our goal is to leverage new technologies and advanced methodologies to overcome the limitations of current protocols and to further advance the field of tolerance induction.