The kidney research national dialogue: gearing up to move forward

Abstract

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases-supported Kidney Research National Dialogue asked the scientific community to formulate and prioritize research objectives that would improve our understanding of kidney function and disease; >1600 participants from >30 countries posted >300 ideas and >500 comments covering all areas of kidney research. Smaller groups of investigators interrogated the postings and published a series of commentaries in CJASN. Additional review of the entire series identified six cross-cutting themes: (1) increase training and team science opportunities to maintain/expand the nephrology workforce, (2) develop novel technologies to assess kidney function, (3) promote human discovery research to better understand normal and diseased kidney function, (4) establish integrative models of kidney function to inform diagnostic and treatment strategies, (5) promote interventional studies that incorporate more responsive outcomes and improved trial designs, and (6) foster translation from clinical investigation to community implementation. Together, these cross-cutting themes provide a research plan to better understand normal kidney biology and improve the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of kidney disease, and as such, they will inform future research efforts supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases through workshops and initiatives.

Keywords: AKI; bioinformatics; biomarkers; systems medicine; training.

Figure 1.

Six cross-cutting themes of the Kidney Research National Dialogue (KRND) commentaries and basic science research form a pinion that can move toward the goal of enhancing knowledge of kidney heath and disease to improve clinical outcomes. Today’s opportunities frequently resulted from advances in basic fundamental research into kidney function (central axle), and tomorrow’s opportunities will require continued investment in basic, translational, and clinical research. The six cross-cutting objectives of KRND commentaries are (1) increase training and team science opportunities to maintain/expand the nephrology workforce, (2) develop novel technologies to assess kidney function, (3) promote human discovery research to better understand normal and diseased kidney function, (4) establish integrative models of kidney function to inform diagnostic and treatment strategies, (5) promote interventional studies that incorporate more responsive outcomes and improved trial designs, and (6) foster translation from clinical investigation to community implementation. Together, these cross-cutting themes provide a research plan for improving the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of kidney disease, and as such, they will inform future research efforts supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases through workshops and initiatives. These combined efforts support the main goals mentioned through the KRND commentaries: to enhance knowledge of kidney health and disease, improve clinical outcomes, and support the future of nephrology research.