Acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) impose a significant global health burden. Yet, no effective therapies currently exist for AKI, and only a few are available for CKD.
Despite significant effort from industry and academia, development of pharmacologic therapies for AKI and CKD has been hampered by:
Non-predictive animal models The inability to identify and prioritize human targets The limited availability of human kidney biopsy tissue A poor understanding of AKI and CKD heterogeneity Historically, AKI and CKD have been described as single, uniform diseases. However, growing consensus suggests that different disease pathways lead to different subgroups of AKI and CKD (AKIs and CKDs).
Access to human kidney biopsy tissue is a critical first step to define disease heterogeneity and determine the precise molecular pathways that will facilitate identification of specific drug targets and ultimately enable individualized care for people with AKI and CKD.
A number of research centers across the United States are collaborating to bring state-of-the-art technologies together to:
* Ethically obtain and evaluate kidney biopsies from participants with AKI or CKD
* Define disease subgroups
* Create a kidney tissue atlas
* Identify critical cells, pathways, and targets for novel therapies
The KPMP is made up of three distinct, but highly interactive, activity groups:
* Recruitment Sites: The recruitment sites (RS) are responsible for recruiting participants with AKI or CKD into the longitudinal study and performing the kidney biopsy.
* Tissue Interrogation Sites: The tissue interrogation sites (TIS) are responsible for developing and using innovative technologies to analyze the biopsy tissue.
* Central Hub: The central hub is responsible for aggregating, analyzing, and visualizing the generated data and providing scientific, infrastructure, and administrative support for the KPMP consortium.