Identification of novel diagnostic, predictive and therapeutic strategies in chronic kidney disease

Introduction

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) represents an important medical, social, and economic burden with high morbidity and mortality. The prevalence of CKD has reached >10% in the developed world, and CKD globally accounts for more years lived with disability than all neoplasms combined.

Current Challenges

Therapeutic strategies to treat CKD or tools for risk stratification of patients are limited. The field has produced the fewest translational randomized clinical trials in medicine, while diagnosis is still based on invasive tissue biopsies.

Project Goals

TargetCKD aims to establish a holistic understanding of cellular and molecular mechanisms that drive disease to develop novel diagnostic, predictive, and therapeutic options. Concrete objectives are:

1. The development of a platform for identification of novel predictive markers and therapeutic targets in kidney biopsies.
2. The identification of conserved spatio-temporal mechanisms and cellular cross-talk events driving CKD.
3. The validation of mechanisms and therapeutic targets in human 3D organoid systems and development of therapeutics.
4. The development of a noninvasive diagnostic platform from urine.

Methodology

TargetCKD will utilize a broad interdisciplinary expertise with various novel single-cell and spatial genomic and computational technologies combined with transgenic mouse models and cutting-edge in vitro platforms.

Expected Impact

The integration of all these technologies in clinically relevant specimens with follow-up data and large independent validation cohorts will allow TargetCKD to radically transform nephrology. This transformation will lead to a better understanding of kidney diseases, the development of novel diagnostics, risk stratification tools for patient allocation and clinical testing, as well as urgently needed therapeutics for patients suffering from CKD.

Conclusion

The passion that drives this project results from a simple emerging hypothesis: It is possible to predict CKD and develop therapeutics by an in-depth systems approach utilizing emerging genomic technologies.