The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) established the NIDDK CKD Biomarkers Consortium to promote the discovery and validation of biomarkers to advance the field of chronic kidney disease (CKD) research. The consortium brings together investigators whose expertise includes clinical nephrology, epidemiology, molecular biology, genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, systems biology, laboratory medicine, biostatistics, and laboratory test verification and qualification.

As part of this innovative consortium, The Institute for Personalized Medicine is currently leveraging its expertise in electronic medical records, genomics, and biomarker development to develop and validate novel biomarkers to better stratify and predict disease progression.

The Impact of Chronic Kidney Disease

Chronic Kidney Disease affects an estimated 20 million patients in the United States, rising over the last two decades to 11.5 percent of the population. CKD is a life‐course disease that typically evolves over many years. There is a long period when the disease is clinically silent and usually detected only with use of diagnostic tests. Currently, clinical detection and management of kidney disease is primarily performed using a set of biomarkers that assess kidney function. While the biomarkers that are currently used are essential parts of routine clinical practice and research, they do have important limitations, which is why finding appropriate biomarkers is so important.