Cracking the kidney disease code with Kidney Research UK

Nephrotic Syndrome is a devastating disease usually first diagnosed in young children where the kidney filtration system breaks down. This leads to massive loss of proteins from the blood into the urine, with severe long-term complications and eventual kidney failure. The focus of Gavin’s work is to understand the molecular basis of this disease, including inherited forms, and forms caused by circulating toxic factors in the blood.

Carl spent his Kidney Research UK sponsored PhD studentship looking at one of the 20 cell-types in the kidney: the podocyte. In particular, he was looking at how these cells change in kidney disease. Since finishing his PhD he has continued working with Gavin looking at how the circulating factor might be causing kidney disease.