What a Gene and Its Risks Could Mean for Kidney Transplants

Kidneys from Black donors are automatically downgraded in transplant assessments, but studying a gene variant could help change that.

Transplant specialists, when evaluating kidneys that come from donors, try to work out how likely it is that the kidney will fail after being transplanted into a recipient. Their risk calculations consider factors including the donor’s age, height, weight and history of diabetes. And, to the dismay of some researchers, it also includes the donor’s race.

Kidneys from deceased Black donors are automatically downgraded as higher risk.
Read the full story in The New York Times.