Project Details
Projekt
Coordination Funds
Applicant
Professor Dr. Peter Boor, Ph.D.
Subject Area
Nephrology
Term
since 2021
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 445703531
Nephrology cares for highly complex patients and at the same time has the lowest number of randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs) in internal medicine. The latter is largely due to an insufficient understanding of pathophysiology, relevant preclinical models, specific diagnostic approaches, and accepted surrogate endpoints for RCTs. Our clinical research unit (CRU) addresses this unmet need by developing and translating emerging methods to improve kidney research. Our diverse and highly complementary set of expertise, techniques, and approaches enables us to test novel diagnostic approaches, that could serve as potential endpoints for RCTs and advance our understanding of the driving mechanisms and regulatory processes of kidney disease transitions of stable vs. progressive vs. recovery states. Examples of our achievements from the 1st funding period include a novel omics approach for kidney histology, termed pathomics, which was coined as one of the major achievements in nephrology in 2023; advanced human kidney organoid models to study kidney diseases, including the effects of SARS-CoV-2; development of approaches generating spatial multi-omics maps in human tissues; or the refinement of non-invasive kidney imaging. In the 2nd funding period, our goals centre around four areas: novel in vitro humanized models, omics technologies for morphological and molecular characterization of kidney tissues, non-invasive imaging approaches, and data and methods integration. Two projects (P) will develop humanized in vitro models, focusing on high-throughput and functionalized organoids to test mechanisms and drugs (P1 and P10). Three projects will utilize complementary approaches of spatial transcriptomics (P2), spatial proteomics (P3), and pathomics (P4), to generate comprehensive morpho-molecular maps of kidney disease transitions. Two projects will develop non-invasive imaging methods, i.e. molecular imaging (P6) and super-resolution ultrasound (P7) for improved diagnostics, disease monitoring, and theranostic. Finally, two projects will focus on developing approaches to integrate these technologies and diagnostics to advance our understanding of the pathophysiology of IgA nephropathy (P8) and kidney side-effects of drugs or environmental toxins, including the CKD of unknown origin, an enigmatic global health issue (P9). Structurally, our CRU is deeply embedded and strengthens the major research foci of the Medical Faculty of the RWTH Aachen University, i.e., “Phase Transition in Disease” and “Medical Technology and Digital Life Sciences” and the Profile Area “Medicine and Technology” of the RWTH Aachen University. Our CRU is integrated within the “Comprehensive Diagnostic Centre Aachen – CDCA” and the “Centre for Computational Life Sciences – CCLS”. Two research buildings, currently under construction, will provide extensive added infrastructural support for the CRU.
DFG Programme
Clinical Research Units
