Roche
Organ Transplantation Research Foundation. (ROTRF)
ROTRF is a registered
Medical Research Charity Foundation promoting advances in Organ
transplantation by allocating research grants to universities,
transplant centres and research institutes. The Foundation funds
research that aims to improve outcomes for recipients of organ
transplants; some funded areas include studies into improving
long-term graft survival, preventing chronic organ dysfunction
and development of new agents for use in transplantation.
FUNDING
OPPORTUNITIES WITH THE ROTRF
Awards
grants of up to 300,000 Swiss francs distributed over three
years. Progressive, innovative and promising projects of high
risk may be supported
as proof-of-concept studies.
The
ROTRF encourages but is not limited to medical and biological
research into:
- Improvement
of long-term graft survival and prevention of chronic organ
dysfunction;
- Relevant
immune recognition, regulation, and effector mechanisms;
- Histocompatibility;
- Inflammation,
tissue injury and repair in transplantation;
- Development
of new agent for use in transplantation;
- Prospective
and specific analysis of human organ transplant population
(no generic grants to support registries);
- Induction
of tolerance;
- New
clinical trial methods and surrogate endpoints;
- Tissue
injury and organ preservation relevant to transplantation;
and
- Cell
or tissue transplantation relevant to organ transplantation;
- The
ROTRF will consider providing limited support for unique initiatives
such as international database of general interest to transplantation
researchers.
Our
website, www.ROTRF.org provides
all the necessary information and application forms.
Application
for ROTRF grants are reviewed twice a year in a two-stage process:
- First,
a letter of intent (LOI) – a short, descriptive abstract of
the research proposal – is submitted via www.ROTRF.org.
- After
thorough review, the top – ranked applicants are invited to
submit a full paper application with an approximately 50%
chance of funding.
The
deadlines for LOI submission are twice a year: on 1st
April and 1st October of each year.
About transplantation and immunosuppression
-
Organ transplantation is
a well-established and often life-saving treatment for patients
with organ failure. The most commonly transplanted solid organs
are the kidney, heart, liver, pancreas, lungs and intestines.
Double transplants may be carried out in which a patient
receives two organs simultaneously, such as heart and lung,
kidney and pancreas, liver and kidney etc. Surgeons also
transplant tissues including corneas, bone marrow, cartilage,
skin, bone and heart valves.
-
Organ transplant is now
relatively commonplace with approximately 50,000 organs being
transplanted every year, of which 50-60% are kidney/pancreas
transplant.
-
Although there are
between 15-30 organ donations per million residents in western
countries, there is still a dynamic shortage of organs. Waiting
lists continue to grow and every year, patients die while waiting
for an organ.
-
Following an organ
transplant, the body's immune system identifies the new organ as
a foreign body and produces an immune response in an attempt to
reject it. To manage this, patients are give immunosuppressants
(powerful drugs to suppress their immune system) usually for the
rest of their lives. With recent advances in immunosuppression
therapy, the incidence of acute rejection of a transplanted
organ can be lower than 10%.
Roche in Transplantation in
India
Roche
is strongly committed to improving a long – term outcome of
transplantation and enhancing the quality of life of transplant
recipients. Roche has developed three innovative therapies that
improve graft and post – transplant health; Cellcept is the
cornerstone of low toxicity immunosuppressant therapies. Cellcept
is the largest selling branded immunosuppressive in North America,
offers both physicians and patients the possibility of an effective
long term immunosuppressive regimen with low toxicity, Zenapax
prevents the acute rejection of the newly transplanted organ,
and Cymevene/Cytovene/Valcyte has been developed for the prevention
and treatment of cytomegalovirus, a dangerous viral infection
associated with transplantation. Recently, Roche have announced
a co-development agreement with Isotechnika for their new medicine,
ISA TX
247, a potentially
more potent and less toxic calcineurin inhibitor.
For
further information please visit our website
http://www.rochetransplantation.com/
