Immune Tolerance in Transplantation

For people who receive an organ transplant, immunosuppressive drugs are a lifeline that prevents their immune system from rejecting the transplant. However, these drugs work by suppressing all of the immune system - even the parts that protect from real threats. This means that people taking immunosuppressive drugs are at risk of developing serious infections.

The Immune Tolerance Network (ITN) is working to find new therapies that reprogram the immune system in a way that will allow people to maintain the health of the organ without long-term use of immunosuppression, also known as tolerance.

Kidney Transplant Trials Liver Transplant Trials

This section contains a list of ITN's transplantation clinical trials that are currently enrolling participants. To see all of ITN's active and completed studies in transplantation, please visit For Researchers.

Clinical Trials - Transplantation

Active

Measuring Allospecific Impact of Belatacept/Carfilzomib Desensitization (ADAPT)

Principal Investigator:

Stuart Knechtle, MD, Duke University Hospital

The goal of the ADAPT study is to study whether using two drugs, carfilzomib and belatacept, together can lower the number of plasma cells in “highly sensitized” people on the kidney transplant waiting list.

Learn more: Study Summary Clinicaltrials.gov Study Website

Daratumumab plus belatacept desensitization trial (ATTAIN)

Principal Investigator:

Flavio G. Vincenti, MD, University of California, San Francisco Medical Center

The goal of ATTAIN is to study whether using two drugs, daratumumab and belatacept, together can lower the number of plasma cells in “highly sensitized” people on the kidney transplant waiting list.

Learn more: Study Summary Clinicaltrials.gov Study Website

Liver Transplantation with Tregs at MGH and UCSF (LITTMUS)

Principal Investigator:

James Markman, MD, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital , Boston, MA;

Sandy Feng, MD, PhD, University of California San Francisco , San Francisco, CA

LITTMUS is a clinical research study testing a new approach to achieve transplant tolerance using the liver transplant recipient’s own T regulatory cells (Tregs).

Learn more: Study Summary Clinicaltrials.gov Study Website