Grant: Project Grant

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is common in hospitalized patients and, in many cases, leads to irrecuperable loss of renal function. My group showed that injury and loss of microscopic blood vessels that provide oxygen and nutrients to the kidneys are of major importance for predicting renal failure. However, there is currenlty no reliable means of assessing injury to renal microvessels in patients. We recently identified the gene caspase-3 as a central regulator of the loss of renal microvessels. Here, we will build on this new observation to study the mechanisms of injury to renal microvessels and characterize novel biomarkers of renal microvascular damage. We will use a multifacetted strategy combining animal models, proteomics and patients samples to define novel means of predicting and preventing renal failure.