Vision

The ATAGC is committed to improving the outcomes of transplant patients and of patients suffering from chronic organ diseases. We achieve this by understanding the molecular changes in their tissues during disease states.

Our strategy is to use kidney transplant rejection as a Rosetta stone to redefine organ diseases. Transplants have taught us many lessons about how human tissue responds to injury and disease that can be applied to transplantation and to other diseases.

Through a multidisciplinary approach to the analysis of high dimensionality data (a great many measurements for each sample), we aim to understand disease manifestations and mechanisms. In effect, the diseases that have been defined by microscope assessment will now be redefined by molecular methods. The expansion of our diagnostic systems to incorporate molecular and microscope readouts is changing our definitions and understanding of diseases. This will allow the design of more effective therapeutic interventions to prevent organ failure and improve patient outcomes.

1. To understand the pathogenesis of injury, rejection, and disease in transplants.
2. To understand why organs progress to failure, and to predict who is at risk.
3. To reclassify organ diseases based on the molecules that cause them.
4. To use this knowledge to develop more effective drugs.
5. To apply the lessons learned through our research in transplantation to other chronic diseases including kidney disease, liver disease, heart disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and cancer.