Jeffrey L. Veale, M.D.

Veale is a nationally recognized leader in transplant immunology and living kidney donation. He leads UCLA’s Delayed Immunosuppression-Free Kidney Transplant Tolerance Program, the first of its kind in the nation. This clinical trial is testing a novel protocol in which kidney transplant recipients receive an infusion of blood stem cells from their matched sibling donor up to five years after their transplant.

The goal is to create immune tolerance by promoting chimerism — a state in which the donor and recipient immune systems coexist. This approach has the potential to free transplant recipients from the lifelong need for immunosuppressive medications, which carry serious side effects including infection, cardiovascular disease, and increased cancer risk.

Veale’s work aims to make immune tolerance accessible to more patients by separating the transplant and stem cell infusion into two outpatient procedures, offering greater flexibility and scalability. As part of this effort, he is also studying how immune tolerance is achieved at the cellular and molecular level, with the goal of expanding the approach to less well-matched donor-recipient pairs and to recipients of other organs, such as the liver or heart.

In addition to his work on immune tolerance, Veale is a national leader in expanding access to living kidney donation. He helped pioneer the kidney donor voucher system, which enables individuals to donate a kidney in advance, allowing their intended recipient to receive a transplant later when medically needed. He was the first physician in the United States to honor such a voucher, paving the way for other institutions to adopt the model. 

He also works to strengthen kidney exchange programs, which create chains of donations between incompatible pairs, increasing transplant opportunities for patients nationwide.