Projects we support

How do we choose them?

Every grant application that Kids Kidney Research receives is reviewed by our Medical Advisory Panel which consists of 6 eminent paediatric renal consultants.  The applications must be approved by a majority in order to secure funding.

In addition, we are members of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) and the Charities Commission - both bodies ensure that we run the charity properly and use best practice to select which projects to fund.

Which projects have we funded?

Developing unique human renal progenitor cell lines -- towards novel therapies for congenital and acquired kidney diseases?

Development of the kidney involves interactions between only two cells types that differentiate into nearly all of the different tissues in the adult kidney. Development sometimes goes wrong leading to malformed kidneys, and many genes in developing kidneys are also reactivated in diseases of the mature kidney. Here we will investigate what is needed for the cells to develop properly by growing human kidney cells with different characteristics in a dish in our laboratory. We will then be able to use these unique cells (no one else in the world has these) to identify key molecules that control human kidney development, which can then be targeted in future treatments of human kidney malformations and kidney diseases. 

A mechanistic link between plasma factors and podocyte dysfunction in Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis

Nephrotic syndrome is a disease of kidney filtration, whereby huge amounts of protein are lost in the urine due to a defect in the primary filtering cell of the kidney, the podocyte. In affected children this leads to swelling (oedema), susceptibility to infections, clotting risk and eventually kidney failure. The treatment is often poorly effective, and involves long courses of toxic immunosuppression A particularly difficult complication is that the disease can rapidly recur in a transplanted kidney. This has led to the theory that the disease is caused by abnormalities in circulating plasma.

The researchers have developed unique resources in the laboratory whereby they can test what elements of human plasma cause damage in nephrotic syndrome. Their's is the only laboratory in the world to have developed human podocytes to grow and study, which provides the ideal model system. This study proposes to study elements in human plasma called proteases, and work out whether they cause damage to the podocyte likely to reflect the damage seen in nephrotic syndrome. If successful, it will identify specific targets in the podocyte and in plasma, which could be used to alleviate or cure nephrotic syndrome.

Find out about other projects we have funded.