Our experts shape the future. Last year our grants committee reviewed 160 funding applications and identified the strongest research projects that could make the most progress and the biggest difference to patients. We awarded 47 research grants totalling £4.98 million during the year. Every year making decisions about what we can fund is difficult because the standard is so high. We have to turn down grants with enormous scientific merit, simply because we don’t have the money available to fund them. The coronavirus pandemic has significantly reduced our income, which means we don’t yet know when we will be able to fund new projects. This means the hopes riding on projects we are currently funding are bigger than ever before. Here are four of the grants we awarded last year.
Could genes reveal how to prevent kidney scarring?
Finding kidney problems earlier in pregnancy
Dr Laura Denby hopes to find a way to prevent the scarring that leads to kidney failure.
Midwife Katherine Clark aims to improve how we can detect and predict kidney problems in pregnant women.
Through her genetic studies, Dr Denby identified 29 genes that may be involved in renal fibrosis, where the kidneys become scarred and cannot work properly. Some of these genes have never previously been linked to fibrosis – including one called GPR176. Dr Denby found that GPR176 is inactive in the normal kidney, but very active in injured kidneys and chronic kidney disease. This suggests it could be involved in the scarring process, and may be a potential target for medicines to stop renal fibrosis. With our funding, Dr Denby and the University of Edinburgh team will explore the exact role of GPR176 in renal fibrosis, and search ways to disrupt it. 10 c Kidney Research UK – annual report and financial statements 2019-20
High blood pressure in pregnancy can lead to acute kidney injury (AKI), where the kidneys suddenly stop working properly. Left undetected, AKI can cause irreversible damage. Doctors diagnose AKI in patients using a blood test to detect raised levels of a chemical called creatinine. But creatinine levels usually fall during pregnancy, seem to depend on ethnicity, and we don’t know what the normal range for creatinine in pregnancy is. This means it is harder to judge when there could be a problem. With our funding, Kings College Hospital-based Katherine will establish what the normal creatinine range is, what levels of creatinine indicate AKI in pregnancy in people with different ethnic backgrounds, and which women are most at risk. She’ll also investigate a new way to predict AKI. This exciting research could be the first step towards a routine test for this dangerous condition in pregnancy.
