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The UKRO Story

Our nonprofit was founded because of one simple question.

How can so little be known about kidney disease—a problem that affects 1 in 7 adults in the U.S.?

After entertainment lawyer Ken Kleinberg’s kidneys failed, he and his physician, Dr. Vito Campese, founded UKRO (University Kidney Research Organization) to fund life-saving kidney research.

To boost innovative solutions, UKRO partnered with USC to establish the Vito M. Campese, M.D./UKRO Kidney Research Center on USC’s Health Sciences Campus.

UKRO is committed to funding USC’s development of a transplantable synthetic kidney, derived from stem cells, that will improve treatment of kidney disease and replace dialysis.

A Stem Cell Revolution at USC

Team leader Dr. Zhongwei Li has recently been recognized with a prestigious NIH Directors’ New Innovator award.

His synthetic kidney begins with cells nurtured in a Petri dish, eventually growing into a full-fledged kidney within the patient’s body.

In just 5 to 7 years, we anticipate the synthetic kidney will be undergoing FDA trials and making its debut in human treatments. Already, mini cystic kidneys developed for this project are being utilized to model polycystic kidney disease (PKD) and perform drug screening to identify novel therapies.

Watch our videos below to learn more about the synthetic kidney and UKRO.