Genetics researcher receives grant to study diabetic kidney disease

Katalin Susztak, MD, PhD, an associate professor of medicine and genetics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has received a $3 million grant from three pharmaceutical companies to study the genetic components of diabetic kidney disease, according to a press release.

The study, called TRIDENT, will collect kidney biopsy tissue, as well as blood, urine and genetic materials to create a multi-omics dataset. From these data, Susztak and colleagues will investigate molecular pathways and link them to biomarkers of rapid kidney function decline to compare against slower kidney-function decline. This study should help identify potential therapeutic targets for diabetic kidney disease.

“Integrative analysis of the variables will help us paint a fuller and more accurate picture of the dynamics of the molecular systems that underlie this disease,” Susztak said in the release. “This work is especially important now as the rate of diabetes prevalence in our country, and indeed the world, is continually accelerating.”

The pharmaceutical companies — Boehringer Ingelheim, GSK and Regeneron — will use the molecular pathways discovered to individually pursue further study and drug development.

Susztak and colleagues aim to recruit 300 patients across 12 U.S. and Canadian sites.

Disclosures: Susztak has consulted previously for GSK and has received research support from Boehringer Ingelheim for unrelated projects.