Dr H L Trivedi, director and professor, Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Centre, Ahmedabad, received many such patients, and knew precisely what the situation meant, in a country where people could barely afford the transplant itself.

But for a thinking mind, no challenge is insurmountable. And Dr Trivedi took it upon himself to find a solution to the vexation, and with his team at the institute, set about to find a way that could do away with an expensive regimen of drugs a patient is required to take to prevent kidney rejection.The doctors introduced the donor's bone marrow cells in patients, andfound they created tolerance. A subsequent kidney transplant will not be rejected by the body, they found.

The Gujarat Government has recommended Dr Trivedi's name for the Nobel Prize for Medicine for this discovery.

Dr Trivedi took cue from Nobel Prize-winning Swiss immunologist Professor Zinkernagel, who concluded from experiments on animals that only a small portion of the immune system, when exposed to virus, reacts and eventually becomes tolerant.

``I thought the principle can be applied to humans too,'' he says.Though the idea originated in 1995, the experiments began this September. Using the breakthrough technique, 12 patients underwent kidney transplantation. ``The patients are on a very small level of drugs and are doing so well,'' he says.

Dr Trivedi adds, ``Though drugs block rejection of the transplanted kidney, they make the patient vulnerable to virus infections and cancers.'' The post-transplant drugs cost Rs 4 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, he says.

According to Dr Trivedi, the patients caneschew drugs after two months, saving a considerable sum by way of drug purchases.

``This will change the therapeutic way that transplants are carried out,'' he says.

Health and Family Welfare Minister Ashok Bhatt confirmed that Dr Trivedi's name has been recommended for the Nobel Prize. A detailed research paper is underway, to be sent to reputed international scientific journals.