Kidney Research Desk:
Beyond the headlines.

Eligibility criteria: Adults with ESRD on maintenance hemodialysis for at least six months. Age 50–70, or age 40–49 with high panel-reactive antibodies (cPRA ≥99.9%). Must meet strict surgical, medical, and geographic proximity criteria.

Practical reality: Estimated enrollment 50 patients across select centers (Northwestern Chicago and NYU Langone). Requires rigorous lifetime infection surveillance, porcine retrovirus monitoring, and ongoing immunosuppression.

Eligibility criteria: Primary kidney transplant recipients aged 18–70 receiving living or deceased donor grafts under defined donor criteria. Prohibits severe sensitization or active viral infection.

Practical reality: Estimated 120 participants. Site activation varies (e.g. UC Davis listed not yet recruiting despite study status). Standard anti-rejection maintenance medications continue.

Eligibility criteria: Adults aged 18–65 with Stage 5 CKD / ESRD who have an identified, medically cleared living donor and meet strict protocol conditioning requirements.

Practical reality: Specialized single-center trial at Massachusetts General Hospital. Involves donor stem cell transplant and intensive pre-transplant conditioning to allow later withdrawal of anti-rejection drugs.

Eligibility criteria: Maintenance hemodialysis patients with functioning vascular access capable of sustaining high blood flow rates (>350–400 mL/min) necessary to achieve target substitution volume (>23 L/session).

Practical reality: European randomized trial (CONVINCE) showed reduced mortality with high convective volumes. Commercial rollout in U.S. centers is expanding in 2026, but availability depends on local clinic machinery, water purity systems, and individual vascular access fit.

Current status: Historical individual expanded-access procedures reported in medical literature. Formal multicenter clinical trial (RESTORE) announced by sponsor targeting Q1 2027 initiation.

Practical reality: No active human clinical trial registry record for kidney failure was open at the time of review. Headlines describing upcoming trials are not active patient enrollment opportunities.

Current status: Laboratory bioreactor testing in animal models combining silicon hemofiltration membranes with cultured human renal tubule cells. No human clinical trial has begun.

Practical reality: The UCSF online sign-up form is an educational interest-notification database, not a clinical trial registry or patient waiting list. No guaranteed human start date or therapeutic outcome has been established.

Trial summary: Cleaves human antibodies within hours to enable crossmatch-positive kidney transplantation. Pivotal U.S. Phase 3 trial (ConfIdeS / NCT04935177) completed.

Practical reality: FDA Biologics License Application (BLA) under review with target PDUFA action date December 19, 2026. European conditional approval does not grant U.S. clinical availability until FDA review concludes.

Eligibility criteria: Adults established on peritoneal dialysis for at least 3 months with stable dialysis adequacy, clean exit site, and absence of active peritonitis.

Practical reality: First-in-human European safety feasibility study. Listed recruiting at Utrecht (Netherlands); Italian and Spanish secondary sites listed not yet recruiting. Registry update frequency is bounded.

Eligibility criteria: Adults with type 2 diabetes and advanced chronic kidney disease (eGFR 20–50 mL/min). Involves kidney biopsy to extract and expand patient cells for cortical re-injection.

Practical reality: Study status is Active, Not Recruiting. Designed for patients before dialysis to delay progression; does not serve as a replacement therapy for End-Stage Renal Disease.

Historical summary: Evaluated autologous donor-antigen-specific regulatory T-cells in deceased donor kidney transplant recipients.

Practical reality: Study terminated by sponsor in 2026. Important evidence of research boundaries; not an open clinical trial or treatment option.

Historical summary: Parallel protocol investigating donor-specific Treg therapy in living-donor renal transplant recipients.

Practical reality: Study terminated by sponsor. Headline claims citing early tolerance protocols must be checked against termination status in registry filings.

Eligibility criteria: Sibling donor-recipient pairs with complete HLA matching undergoing living-donor renal transplantation at Stanford.

Practical reality: Study completed. Peer-reviewed papers demonstrated successful drug withdrawal in matched sibling pairs, but universal application to mismatched or deceased donor grafts remains experimental.

Trial summary: French hospital feasibility trial assessing short daily hemodialysis with a reduced-footprint dialyzer system.

Practical reality: Federal registry overall status is listed as Unknown because sponsor updates have lapsed. Should not be presented to patients as an open enrollment opportunity.

Trial summary: Singapore-based feasibility trial evaluating an automated sorbent regeneration cartridge for tidal peritoneal dialysis.

Practical reality: Completed with 12 participants enrolled. Demonstrated proof of concept for sorbent fluid regeneration; not yet commercially cleared in the United States.

Historical summary: Benchmark 2015 Seattle trial testing an ambulatory sorbent-based wearable hemodialysis device for up to 24 hours.

Practical reality: Trial completed in 2016. Proved clearance feasibility but identified technical challenges (gas bubbles, catheter clotting). No active commercial device has emerged directly from this specific prototype.

Coverage: Travel, lodging, meals, and up to $6,000 in lost wages for qualified living organ donors.

Practical reality: Program rules undergo periodic regulatory adjustments. Applicants must verify current income eligibility and submit prior to donation surgery. Current website retains existing criteria until federal updates finalize.

Scientific summary: Laboratory peer-reviewed publications generating millimeter-scale kidney organoids containing glomeruli and tubules from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).

Practical reality: Research models are currently used for nephrotoxicity drug screening and developmental biology. No complete, transplantable, full-sized bio-printed human kidney has been constructed or tested in humans.

Overview: Over 1,500 active, recruiting, and observational kidney-related studies indexed nationwide across university hospitals, health systems, and pharmaceutical sponsors.

Practical reality: Searching the database requires clinical literacy to distinguish Phase 1 safety trials from Phase 3 registration studies. Always verify with the study coordinator whether a specific site is actively taking referrals.