Grant: Project Grant

The cause of kidney disease is generally unknown. Because of this, there are few treatments specifically for kidney diseases and often times kidneys fail. The only treatment for kidney failure is life support using dialysis or a kidney transplant. Unfortunately, dialysis causes all sorts of medical problems and there are not enough kidney transplants to treat all patients with kidney failure. A better approach is to find new treatments for kidney disease and prevent kidney failure altogether. We have discovered a new molecule in the kidney called dipeptidase-1. We have strong evidence that dipeptidase-1 plays a very important role in kidney disease and kidney failure. We plan to study exactly how dipeptidase-1 causes kidney disease and how to best interfere with its function. We have also developed new drugs that block dipeptidase-1 and plan to test them to see if they protect the kidney during disease and prevent kidney failure.