Synthetic kidney transplants could be less than 10 years away thanks to Hollywood lawyer to the stars who funded research after suffering renal failure
- Kenneth Kleinberg, a Hollywood lawyer for the likes of Johnny Depp and J.K. Rowling, developed kidney disease and wasn’t satisfied with doctors’ explanations
- He funded researchers who, in 2022, made a synthetic kidney using stem cells. It could mean those with renal failure ‘won’t have to rely on donors’ or dialysis
Kenneth Kleinberg had it all. A hotshot Hollywood lawyer and founding partner of Kleinberg Lange Cuddy & Carlo, he represented A-listers such as author J.K. Rowling, actors Johnny Depp and Jack Nicholson, musicians Mick Jagger and Toby Keith, and brands such as Lego.
At the age of 56, he was as healthy as he was hardworking, with barely a complaint or a niggle.
But that all changed in the late 1990s while on a business trip to the French city of Cannes, when he woke one morning feeling puffy and uncomfortable, as though he was carrying extra fluid. The next day the problem was worse.
“I called my doctor in California and he said, ‘Jump on the first flight home.’ By the time I got to see him, I had an extra 30 pounds (14kg) of water sloshing around in my body. I felt like one of those inflatable clown toy punch bags filled with water,” Kleinberg says.
Dialysis is a way of cleaning the blood of toxins when the kidney is not functioning properly, by diverting it into an external machine where it is filtered and then returned to the body. It normally has to be done three times a week for about four hours.
As a lawyer, Kleinberg is used to getting answers. He could not accept how little even the best doctors knew about the causes of the disease, and how his treatments were a guessing game.
“I said, ‘How can we be here at nearly the turn of the 21st century and I have a major malady which is not uncommon, in the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country, and no one knows what causes it or how to treat it?’”
Hong Kong records some 1,000 new cases of end-stage renal failure each year, and some 2,000 patients are waiting for kidney transplants.
In the future, patients will not have to rely on donors. The availability of off-the-shelf synthetic kidneys will save lives
An estimated 350 people worldwide die each day waiting for a transplant that doesn’t come in time.
“Maladies that afflict children, like cancer, get huge support, or those like Aids with high-profile campaigners. But kidney disease, which usually affects older people who are already sick, has somehow stayed out of the limelight.
After 13 weeks, Kleinberg was cleared to go home, as long as he continued having regular dialysis for the rest of his life, or until a donor could be found. He decided to turn lemons into lemonade.
“As a lawyer, I started to wonder how to solve this problem. And I had a lot of time on the dialysis machines to figure that out.”
In 2002, after many calls and conversations, Kleinberg co-founded the University Kidney Research Organisation (UKRO) together with Dr Vito Campese, then chair of the division of nephrology and hypertension at the Keck School of Medicine.
Based in Los Angeles, the organisation, which was set up in conjunction with the University of Southern California, supports medical research in prevention, treatment and eradication of kidney disease.
Kleinberg pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money into the non-profit organisation and, through fundraising initiatives such as black-tie dinners, has raised millions more.
In 2022, the UKRO had a massive breakthrough after bringing on two of the world’s leading stem-cell scientists: Andy McMahon – director of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at the University of Southern California (USC) and widely known as the best stem cell scientist in the world, and Zhongwei Li – assistant professor of medicine and stem-cell biology and regenerative medicine at USC’s Keck School of Medicine.
In October, the scientists built the first synthetic kidney using stem cells, which was successfully transplanted into a mouse (an animal model is currently the only way to grow organs to the sufficient size, McMahon explains).
Contingent upon funding, McMahon believes the first synthetic kidney transplant in humans could happen by 2032.
“Showing efficacy of synthetic kidneys in a large animal model will take around US$25 million-US$50 million to achieve,” he says.
“After human clinical trials, it will go beyond the laboratory to the commercial and private sector. People could be receiving a synthetic kidney within eight to 10 years.”
“In the future, patients will not have to rely on donors. The availability of off-the-shelf synthetic kidneys will likely save the lives of hundreds of people each day,” his colleague Li adds.
“Kidneys account for more than 80 per cent of all the organs needed by patients awaiting organ transplantation, and there is a big gap between the demand and the supply of donor kidneys.
“If we can generate kidneys from stem cells for transplantation, we can save a lot of lives.”
There was a happy ending to the story for Kleinberg. On the eve of one of his major fundraising events in 2007, he received a call from the hospital telling him there was a kidney waiting for him.
At the fundraiser, his son appeared on stage in his absence to give the keynote speech, explaining his father was not there because he was finally getting a kidney transplant after six long years of dialysis.
The news was greeted with tears and cheers from the audience, and a long night of celebration.
Today, Kleinberg remains a leading lawyer in the entertainment world, as well as a powerful campaigner.
They say every cloud has a silver lining, and without Kleinberg’s personal experience that led to his powerful advocacy of and commitment to finding a cure for kidney disease, coming generations may have continued to suffer as he did.
