130 Kidneys Rescued, Lives Saved, in Year One

Next up: Aim to recover ~50% of donor kidneys that might otherwise go unused 

Major milestone reached by 34 Lives 

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., May 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- https://34lives.com/ 

34 Lives, a Public Benefit Company which aims to rescue donated kidneys that may otherwise go unused, announces the successful rescue and transplant of 130 kidneys to date. 34 Lives was founded in 2022 and is based in West Lafayette, Indiana, at the Purdue Research Park. 

"Every day in this country, approximately 34 patients are forced to give up the dream of receiving a kidney transplant; some die, others become too sick to stay on the transplant waiting list. We are committed to making that number go down. In the past year, we have been incredibly encouraged by the collaboration we have received from 17 OPO partners and 15 Transplant Centers as we work together to save lives," states Kathleen St. Jean, 34 Lives Co-Founder. 

According to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), in 2024, OPOs recovered double the number of kidneys needed to save patients on the waitlist, but 9,275 (29%) recovered by OPOs and offered to transplant patients were declined by transplant programs and ultimately became unviable and went unused. Chris Jaynes, 34 Lives Co-Founder, adds that "The nonuse rate of recovered kidneys has surged by 52% since 2016. That's a fact that we just can't accept." 

Last September, 34 Lives received an award of $44 million over 5 years from The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). The funds will enable the "No Kidney Left Behind" project to create processes utilizing new technologies with the aim of recovering approximately 50% of donor kidneys with viability concerns, thus bolstering the availability of these critical organs and saving more lives. 34 Lives has grown from 2 employees at its start in 2022 to 25 current employees. Future plans include adding a Rescue Lab at a second location in order to increase coverage. 

According to Kevin Longino, CEO at the National Kidney Foundation, "34 Lives is a company working to save more donor kidneys and get them to the patients who desperately need them. This is exactly the kind of bold innovation we need in kidney care—and why NKF's Innovation Fund was an early investor in 34 Lives." 

To Learn More 
To learn more about the work of 34 Lives, visit the website at https://34lives.com/

About 34 Lives

• 34 Lives is a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) headquartered in the Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette, Indiana. The firm is committed to saving the lives of patients awaiting kidney transplant by providing innovative solutions that can give hard-to-place kidneys a second chance and enough time to make it to a waiting patient. 
  
  
• A Central Preservation and Assessment Service to Optimize Donor Kidney Allocation, OPTIMAL, the firm's research protocol, can be found at ClinicalTrials.gov. [Identifier NCT06263023] 

SOURCE 34 Lives, PBC