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UVa Children's Medical Center Awarded Four Million Dollar Grant from NIH

More than 40 percent of children who experience kidney failure are born with abnormally developed kidneys. For many of these children, the only treatment option available is transplantation or dialysis. But researchers at the University of Virginia Children's Medical Center are working to change that.

With the help of a $4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, U.Va. researchers are studying how kidneys develop and function. By understanding the basic science of kidney development, they hope to develop new therapies to benefit infants and children who suffer from or are at risk for kidney diseases.

The kidney goes from being a group of undifferentiated cells to a perfectly structured organ that clears the blood of impurities and regulates blood pressure, said Dr. Ariel Gomez, chief of pediatric nephrology at U.Va. and principal investigator of the study. If we can understand the fundamental principles of how the kidney develops and functions, we may be able to prevent kidney maldevelopment in embryonic life using cell or gene therapy. We also may be able to develop techniques to repair or regenerate kidneys in the future.

The five-year project will investigate how hormones, intracellular events and cell interactions influence kidney development, cell differentiation and integral kidney function during normal and abnormal fetal and postnatal development. It is anticipated that the information obtained from the planned research will lead to improved management of infants and children with renal and urological diseases, Gomez said.

This project is a collaborative effort between the University of Virginia, Georgetown University and the University of Michigan. The U.Va. group is one of two NIH Research Centers of Excellence in pediatric nephrology in the country.

March 3, 1998