Aim
The VITALIZE project aims to develop an objective method to quantify pre-transplant kidney quality, to diminish organ waste and better utilize available kidneys. As of now expanded criteria donors and donation after circulatory death are increasingly being used. With the use of these marginal kidneys comes an added risk and with the lack of reliable and objective assessment tools it might lead to poor kidney transplants or potential kidney grafts being discarded. Moreover, normothermic machine perfusion makes it possible to have an active metabolizing kidney in an ex-vivo setup, hereby creating a unique opportunity to assess kidney vitality. To exploit that opportunity, we have a setup combining normothermic machine perfusion, nanoparticle-based biosensors, and near-infrared-fluorescence whole kidney imaging. Ultimately, we will investigate the diagnostic value of our method through comparison of damage and healthy porcine kidneys.

Collaboration
The project is a collaboration between Department of Organ Donation and Transplantation, University Medical Center Groningen, The Department of Urology, Aarhus University Hospital, The department of nephrology, and the interdisciplinary Nanoscience center (iNANO), Aarhus University.

Contact 
Research year student Jesper Staulund, Jesperstaulund@clin.au.dk
Anna Krarup Keller, anna.keller@clin.au.dk, Department of Urology
Marco Eijken, m.eijken@clin.au.dk, Department of Nephrology