Katalin Susztak, MD, PhD, an associate professor of Medicine and Genetics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has received a $3 million grant from a consortium of pharmaceutical companies to identify genes and other characteristics that are signs of rapid decline in kidney function in patients with diabetic kidney disease.​​​​​​​

This study, called TRIDENT (Transformative Research In DiabEtic NephropaThy) is the first such trial that will generate a “multi-omics” data set to pave the way for precision medicine treatment for diabetic kidney disease. Susztak and colleagues will collect, process, and study kidney biopsy tissue and harvest blood, urine, and genetic materials to generate multi-omics datasets. These will reveal molecular pathways and link them to biomarkers that characterize patients with rapid kidney-function decline compared to those with slower kidney-function decline. This analysis will help identify potential therapeutic targets for patients. ​​​​​​​

Members of the consortium -- Boehringer Ingelheim, GSK, and Regeneron -- will each contribute to the research strategy and implementation of the overall group in a precompetitive space. Each pharma member will be able to use the molecular networks identified by the consortium to continue individual company discovery efforts outside of the consortium, including developing drugs to interfere with the disease pathways.

One of the key hurdles in diabetic kidney disease research has been the lack of kidney tissue samples from patients with diabetes. Until now, only a few centers in the U.S. have performed biopsies on these patients. Additionally, animal and cell culture models do not fully mirror human versions of the disease, and human genetic studies to date have failed to identify consistent genetic variants associated with diabetic kidney disease.

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