Research
We will train young scientists to combat cardiovascular burden in chronic kidney disease by providing them with excellent scientific, technological and complementary skills to generate innovative insights in the pathology of the cardiorenal syndrome, and translate these into innovative clinical products. Ultimately, this will improve diagnosis as well as therapy of the cardiorenal syndrome and reduce the socio-economic burden of this disease.
Our consortium will organize a multidisciplinary training programme for early-stage researchers (ESRs) to enable them translating knowledge and ideas in the field of the cardiorenal syndrome into innovative research and products. This multi-disciplinary training programme will be embedded in an already established cooperation of academic and non-academic partners. As part of their scientific training, the recruited ESRs will (Fig. 1):
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Identify by proteomics/peptidomics analyses to reveal candidates for diagnosis, prediction and treatment of the cardiorenal syndrome.
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Generate a using bioinformatics, to assess the value of biomarker candidates in diagnostic and predictive signatures, and reveal key candidates for biomarkers and targets.
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Study , the role of biomarker/target candidates and novel therapeutic strategies, to reveal novel diagnostic and therapeutic options.
Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) exhibit a massively increased risk for cardiovascular events: 50% of patients with CKD stage 4-5 suffer from cardiovascular disease (CVD) , and cardiovascular mortality accounts for ~40-50% of all deaths in patients with CKD stage 4 as well as patients with end-stage renal disease, compared with 26% in controls with normal kidney function . With 10-13% of people presenting CKD and CVD accounting for ~9% of total health care costs, the socio-economic burden of this cardiovascular-renal pathology, referred to as the cardiorenal syndrome, is extremely high.
Recent studies have revealed that CKD itself is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular events . This may explain in part why traditional strategies to improve cardiovascular outcome have largely failed in the context of CKD . Also, this emphasizes the need to identify CKD-specific pathology, biomarkers and targets for CVD, in order to reduce the increased cardiovascular mortality in CKD patients through novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies.
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References:
1.Stevens et al. Kidney Int 2007; 2.Thompson et al. J Am Soc Nephrol 2015; 3.Drey et al. Am J Kidney Dis 2003; 4.Ortiz et al. Lancet 2014; 5.Tonelli et al. Lancet 2012.
List of ESRs’ projects
ESR1: Plasma peptidomics to identify CRS biomarkers
Host/Supervisor:
Institute for Molecular Cardiovascular Research, University Clinic Aachen, Germany
Prof. Dr. Joachim Jankowski
Co-supervisors:
Biochemistry department, School for Cardiovascular Diseases in Maastricht, the Netherlands
Prof. Leon Schurgers/ Prof. Erik Biessen
Fresenius Medical Care, Germany
Dr. Sonja Steppan
ESR2: Plasma and tissue proteomics to identify CRS biomarkers
Host/Supervisor:
Biomedical Research Foundation Academy of Athens, Greece
Prof. Dr. Antonia Vlahou
Co-supervisors:
Institute for Molecular Cardiovascular Research, University Clinic Aachen, Germany
Prof. Dr. Joachim Jankowski
Biochemistry department, School for Cardiovascular Diseases in Maastricht, the Netherlands
Prof. Erik Biessen
Fresenius Medical Care, Germany
Dr. Sonja Steppan
ESR3: Urine peptidomics to identify CRS biomarkeers
Host/Supervisor:
Mosaiques Diagnostics GmbH, Germany
Prof. Dr. Petra Zürbig
Co-supervisors:
Center for Medical Statistics, Informatics and Intelligent Systems; Section for Clinical Biometrics,
Medical University Vienna, Austria
Prof. Dr. Georg Heinze
Biomedical Research Foundation Academy of Athens, Greece
Prof. Dr. Antonia Vlahou
ESR4: CRS disease models to assess biomarker candidates in CRS
Host/Supervisor:
Center for Medical Statistics, Informatics and Intelligent Systems; Section for Clinical Biometrics,
Medical University Vienna, Austria
Prof. Dr. Georg Heinze
Co-supervisors:
Mosaiques Diagnostics GmbH, Germany
Prof. Dr. Petra Zürbig
Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale,
(Institute of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases – I2MC), France
Dr. Julie Klein
ESR5: Strategies to interfere with CRS pathology
Host/Supervisor:
University de Montpellier, France
Prof. Dr. Anne Lajoix
Co-supervisors:
Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale,
(Institute of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases – I2MC), France
Prof. Dr. Joost Schanstra
Nephrology Department, University Clinic Aachen, Germany
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Floege
ESR6: Role of identified biomarker candidates in CRS pathology
Host/Supervisor:
Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale,
(Institute of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases – I2MC), France
Prof. Dr. Joost Schanstra
Co-supervisors:
University de Montpellier, France
Prof. Dr. Anne Lajoix
Nephrology Department, University Clinic Aachen, Germany
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Floege
ESR7: Effect of uremia on vascular remodeling and calcification
Host/Supervisor:
Biochemistry department, School for Cardiovascular Diseases in Maastricht, the Netherlands
Prof. Leon Schurgers
Co-supervisors:
Nephrology Department, University Clinic Aachen, Germany
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Floege/ Prof. Dr Joachim Jankowski
Renal Unit Karolinska University Hospital, Sweden
Prof. Dr. Peter Stenvinkel
ESR8: Vitamin K and vascular calcification mechanisms in CRS
Host/Supervisor:
Nephrology Department, University Clinic Aachen, Germany
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Floege
Co-supervisors:
Biochemistry department, School for Cardiovascular Diseases in Maastricht, the Netherlands
Prof. Leon Schurgers
Renal Unit Karolinska University Hospital, Sweden
Prof. Dr. Peter Stenvinkel
ESR9: PTM of calcification regulators in CRS
Host/Supervisor:
Biochemistry department, School for Cardiovascular Diseases in Maastricht, the Netherlands
Prof. Erik Biessen
Institute for Molecular Cardiovascular Research, University Clinic Aachen, Germany
Prof. Dr. Joachim Jankowski
Renal Unit Karolinska University Hospital, Sweden
Prof. Dr. Peter Stenvinkel
ESR10: Premature vascular aging in CRS patients
Host/Supervisor:
Renal Unit Karolinska University Hospital, Sweden
Prof. Dr. Peter Stenvinkel
Co-supervisors:
Department of Nephrology, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium
Prof. Dr. Pieter Evenepoel
University de Montpellier, France
Prof. Dr. Anne Lajoix
ESR11: Effect of uremia on cardiac pathology
Host/Supervisor:
Institute for Molecular Cardiovascular Research, University Clinic Aachen, Germany
Dr. Heidi Noels
Co-supervisors:
Biochemistry department, School for Cardiovascular Diseases in Maastricht, the Netherlands
Prof. Leon Schurgers/ Prof. Erik Biessen
Fresenius Medical Care, Germany
Dr. Sonja Steppan
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