The Center for Transcriptional Medicine (CTM), a new interdisciplinary center in the Department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh, aims to revolutionize the treatment of end-stage organ disease by curing organs rather than waiting for donor organs to become available for transplantation.
It brings together 41 researchers from seven universities who are pursuing a novel approach to reprogramming chronically injured tissues and organs.
This groundbreaking collaboration is already attracting national attention and was featured in an article in WIRED.
The center is led by Alejandro Soto-Gutiérrez (Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh), Nobel Prize winner Drew Weissman (School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania), Sarah Hainer (Department of Life Sciences, University of Pittsburgh) and Deepak Nagrath (Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan).
End-stage organ disease of the lungs, liver, heart and kidneys is responsible for millions of deaths worldwide each year. The only cure currently available is an organ transplant, but according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 100,000 people are on organ waiting lists every day.
Instead of focusing on organ replacement, CTM researchers are looking for new ways to save diseased organs using the same mRNA delivery technology that powers some COVID-19 vaccines. Weissman’s pioneering work with Katalin Karikó in developing the mRNA platform for delivering COVID-19 vaccines led to them being awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
The vaccines use lipid nanoparticles to deliver mRNA to cells – a new yet cost-effective approach.
The center’s research aims to use an integrated multi-omics approach to identify the master regulators of cell identity in diseased tissue, known as transcription factors, that are disrupted during the course of the disease.
CTM researchers have previously shown that re-expression of these disrupted transcription factors in diseased livers reprograms cells and improves organ function.
Lipid nanoparticles naturally reach the liver, but CTM researchers are working to expand the treatment strategy to chronic diseases of the kidney, heart and lung and to establish mRNA-based therapeutics as a viable option for treating end-stage organ disease.
For more information about CTM’s research mission, visit the website at https://ctm.pitt.edu/.
Photo credit: Nate Langer/UPMC
