One in ten Australians has impaired kidney (renal) function, with three out of four adults having at least one risk factor for developing kidney disease. It is twice as common as diabetes and impaired kidney function is now responsible for some of the greatest impacts on disability-adjusted life years of any health condition.
The most severe form of kidney impairment, end stage kidney disease (ESKD), affects over 31,000 Australians and consumes 2-3% of healthcare budgets.
The Translational Renal Research group is focused on improving outcomes for patients with kidney diseases, by translating advances in basic science from the bench to the bedside and wider community, supporting early detection and treatment initiatives.
The main areas of interest for the group are:
- Understanding the epidemiology of chronic kidney disease and associations with health outcomes and healthcare costs, using linked data.
- Developing and validating novel point-of-care and rapid diagnostics for serious infections (a major cause of morbidity and mortality in kidney patients as well as in patients without kidney disease).
- Understanding interactions between microorganisms and peritoneal mesothelial cells during the development of peritoneal-dialysis related peritonitis.
- Improving our understanding of the genetic basis of kidney and autoimmune diseases (many of which cause kidney impairment) through genomic and other ‘omic’ technologies.
