$1 million gift will support UCLA research on advanced lung disease

Philanthropists Michael and Linda Keston have made a gift of $1 million to the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. The donation will support research into advanced lung disease and the UCLA Lung Health Research Initiative, which was launched in November. The initiative is focused on developing new treatments for lung disease and finding a way to prevent the body from rejecting donor organs — a major challenge for people who have received organ transplants. “The Kestons’ contribution will enable our faculty to pursue innovative research that will eventually lead to new treatments to the benefit of countless patients,” said Dr. John Mazziotta, vice chancellor of UCLA Health Sciences and CEO of UCLA Health. The gift will support a five-year study by the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine to investigate the molecular mechanisms involved in chronic organ transplant rejection. The research will focus on the function of chemokines, proteins that send signals that stimulate cells to attack a foreign body such as a transplanted organ. The subject is a key question in organ transplant medicine because long-term survival after a transplant largely depends on preventing the body’s immune response from treating the new organ as a harmful foreign object. UCLA researchers hope that a clearer understanding of chronic organ rejection will ultimately enable transplant patients to live longer, healthier lives w...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news