UKRO University Kidney Research Organization

UKRO is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity founded by entertainment lawyer Kenneth Kleinberg, who in 1999 was diagnosed with a kidney ailment that to this day has no known cause. Mr. Kleinberg suffered renal failure in 2001, and was a dialysis patient for the next six years until receiving a successful kidney transplant in 2007. In 2002, UKRO was established by a small group of committed individuals with the help of Dr. Vito M. Campese, then Professor and Chief of the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. Our mission is to support medical research to prevent, treat, and find cures for kidney disease. In 2012, UKRO entered into an agreement with the Keck School of Medicine of USC, pledging an initial $3.5 million to establish what we envision as a premier center nationally for kidney research—the USC/UKRO Kidney Research Center (KRC). The KRC, which officially opened in September 2015, performs cutting-edge, disease-focused, multidisciplinary research on the causes of and treatments for kidney diseases.