Synthetic kidney transplants could be less than 10 years away thanks to Hollywood lawyer to the stars who funded research after suffering renal failure

Kenneth Kleinberg, a Hollywood lawyer for the likes of Johnny Depp and J.K. Rowling, developed kidney disease and wasn’t satisfied with doctors’ explanations

He funded researchers who, in 2022, made a synthetic kidney using stem cells. It could mean those with renal failure ‘won’t have to rely on donors’ or dialysis

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After suffering renal failure, Hollywood lawyer Kenneth Kleinberg started a research organisation to fight the “silent killer” kidney disease, which went on to make the world’s first synthetic kidney in 2022. Photo: Daniel Doperalski

Published: 4:15am, 27 Jul 2023Updated: 7:52am, 27 Jul 2023

Kenneth Kleinberg had it all. A hotshot Hollywood lawyer and founding partner of Kleinberg Lange Cuddy & Carlo, he represented A-listers such as author J.K. Rowling, actors Johnny Depp and Jack Nicholson, musicians Mick Jagger and Toby Keith, and brands such as Lego.

At the age of 56, he was as healthy as he was hardworking, with barely a complaint or a niggle.

But that all changed in the late 1990s while on a business trip to the French city of Cannes, when he woke one morning feeling puffy and uncomfortable, as though he was carrying extra fluid. The next day the problem was worse.

“I called my doctor in California and he said, ‘Jump on the first flight home.’ By the time I got to see him, I had an extra 30 pounds (14kg) of water sloshing around in my body. I felt like one of those inflatable clown toy punch bags filled with water,” Kleinberg says.

Kleinberg was referred to a kidney specialist after he returned home to Los Angeles. Photo: Shutterstock

His doctor immediately referred him to a kidney specialist. “They told me it was simply a malfunctioning kidney. I was given a drug called Lasix [a diuretic used to help reduce excess fluid in the body] and after about six weeks I was functioning normally. But the disconcerting thing was that they had no idea what caused it.”

After about a year of functioning normally, his kidneys failed again. This time it was worse and he ended up in hospital for weeks on a dialysis machine.