Project Search

After transplantation of a heart or kidney, the immune system may attack the foreign organ so patients are treated with immunosuppressant medication to prevent rejection. However, these drugs can make the patient susceptible to other diseases or damage the transplanted organ itself. Current methods for detecting rejection are either ineffective and inaccurate or highly invasive and risky, such as tissue biopsies. This team has identified candidate blood biomarkers with the long term goal to develop a much more precise, accurate, and affordable method of detecting rejection in transplant patients, allowing for earlier interventions. This project builds on the team already in place from a previous Genome BC funded project and has leveraged substantial ($15M) co-funding from the Canadian Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research program.