(1/1) Maximizing geographic and scientific reach through a Northern California APOLLO Network: application for Clinical Center We submit this application in response to RFA-DK-16-025. We propose a Northern California APOLLO Network based at University of California San Francisco (UCSF; the busiest kidney transplant center in the country), University of California Davis (UC Davis), California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) and Stanford University. We have secured collaborations with the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations (AOPO), United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) and the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR). We have also established relationships with 16 additional transplant centers in the western United States (in Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Southern California) who expressed interest in collaborating and partnering with us. We believe that our Northern California APOLLO Network will contribute importantly to the overall goal of the Consortium to better define the relationship between APOL1 risk status and outcomes among kidney transplant recipients and donors. We will join other Clinical Centers and obtain biological samples, genetic and clinical information from all African American kidney donors and the recipients of those kidneys across the United States, at baseline and longitudinally, and transmit those data and samples to the Scientific and Data Research Center (SDRC). Some strengths of our application (?Elements Unique to This Site?) are: i) inclusion of several high-volume kidney transplant centers; ii) coverage of a wide, contiguous geographic region; iii) multi-disciplinary research team with extensive experience in prospective cohort studies of kidney disease and multi-center consortia; iv) cost-effective ?hybrid? model study design?jointly analyzing data collected as part of a research protocol together with data collected as part of clinical care (or entered into a registry)?that will greatly increase the number of person-years of follow-up and enhance study power; v) strong existing kidney transplant research infrastructure within the network, including ongoing bio-banking at UCSF of protocol allograft biopsy samples (and concurrent blood and urine samples), which will provide valuable information regarding renal pathology associated with APOL1 high-risk status.
The Northern California APOLLO Network comprises all four active kidney transplant centers in Northern California (and a network of potentially interested centers in western United States). To support the APOLLO Consortium's goal of enrolling all US kidney transplant recipients who received kidneys from African American donors as well as all African American living donors, we propose a novel and efficient study design that will maximize person-years of follow-up. Our team includes experts in longitudinal studies of kidney disease, epidemiology, biostatistics, APOL1, kidney transplantation, bioethics and genetics.
