Careers Awards (Fellowships and Studentships) – April 2014
We received 13 fellowship applications and six PhD Studentship applications in this year’s career awards grants round. Within the fellowship applications were seven clinical training fellowships, four non-clinical post-doctoral fellowships and two senior nonclinical fellowships.
Fellowship applications were invited from anyone across the UK within the renal clinical or scientific community, whereas PhD Studentship applications were invited from existing grant holders who could offer the opportunity of a suitable PhD project separate from their active grant.
All applications underwent normal external peer review involving our Research Grants
Committee (RGC) and in the case of the fellowships External Reviewers. Following this, seven fellowships applications (four training; two post-doctoral; one senior) were shortlisted, based upon scientific merit, for interviewing by a panel (selected from the full
RGC).
The panel made the recommendation of six awards: four fellowships and two studentships. This decision was subsequently endorsed by both our Research Strategy
Committee and Board of Trustees.
Total funding: £1,102,054
Success rate for fellowships: 30.8%
Success rate for studentships: 33.3%
Details of the awards made:
Non-clinical Post-doctoral Fellowship to:
Dr Irundika Dias at Aston University, Birmingham
£185,619 over three years
Title: Periodontitis as a co-morbidity for adverse cardiovascular outcomes in patients with chronic kidney disease: do plasma lipids provide a critical link?
Periodontitis is a common chronic inflammatory gum disease, associated with systemic oxidative stress and is highly prevalent in chronic kidney disease (CKD). Patients with both conditions have increased risk of developing heart disease. I have shown that periodontitis increases oxidation markers in blood. My novel pilot data has shown that some oxidised lipids are also elevated in the blood of CKD patients and can change inflammatory cell (monocyte) phenotype. Here I ask whether successful periodontal treatment reduces oxidised lipids, lowers the burden of oxidised lipids in CKD patients, and inflammatory cell activity and therefore reduces their risk for heart disease.

Non-clinical Senior Fellowship to:
Dr Joanna Hester at the John Radcliffe Hospital
£404,034 over five years
Title: Interplay between myeloid-derived suppressor cells and regulatory T cells from transcriptome analysis to in vivo tolerance.
Transplantation is the most effective treatment for end-stage kidney failure. However, organ rejection by the immune system remains a major risk. Regulatory cells are part of the natural regulatory mechanisms which control the immune response. These cells can be isolated from patients, expanded in the laboratory and used as a therapy. However, their mechanisms of action are not fully understood. In the proposed study, mice developed with human immune systems will be used to study the mechanisms utilized by different types of regulatory cells to control kidney transplant rejection.
Clinical Training Fellowships to:
Dr Philippa Dodd at Imperial College London
£258,741 over three years
Title: Manipulating the human response to vascular injury via PAR-1 signalling to prevent intimal hyperplasia and promote regenerative repair.
Kidney transplantation is the preferred treatment for end-stage kidney failure, however, approximately 40% fail by 1 0 years primarily from damage caused by the immune system termed "chronic rejection". Chronic rejection damages blood vessels of the transplanted kidney via a process known as intimal hyperplasia resulting in loss of kidney function. Current therapies are directed at suppressing the patients' immune systems, a strategy fraught with difficulty due to the associated side effects. This application will investigate an alternative approach focussing on promoting regenerative repair of the damaged vessels back to their pre-injured state hence prolonging long term survival of the transplant.
Dr Syazrah Salam at Sheffield Kidney Institute
£134,304 over two years
Title: The role of biomarkers and imaging techniques as an alternative to bone biopsy in predicting bone histomorphometry in patients with chronic kidney disease stages 4/5 -a pilot study.
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) results in bone disease and increases the risk of fractures
(broken bones) that cause pain, disability and premature death. However, treatment to prevent fractures could make the bone abnormalities worse if diagnosed incorrectly.
Bone biopsy, the only way to assess the bone disease, is invasive and painful. So far, widely available bone scans and bone-related blood tests are unable to predict the bone abnormalities. We aim to test the ability of new scans and biomarkers (in blood and urine) to predict the abnormalities on bone biopsy in CKD patients.

PhD Studentship awards to (supervisors):
Dr A Macdonald at the University of Leeds
£58,878 over three years
Title: Targeting host cell Kv1.3 channels to treat virus-associated kidney transplant rejection.
PVAN is a serious complication in kidney transplant recipients, caused by the BK polyomavirus-BKV. PVAN afflicts up to 10% of all kidney transplant patients. There are no effective treatments for BKV. Treatment requires a reduced dose of immunosuppressive drugs, risking graft rejection. We have shown for the first time that the kidney cell proteins that control ion balance are necessary for BKV to grow in cells.
This studentship will explain why these proteins are needed by BKV and how blocking them stops the virus. This may allow us to develop new therapeutics to treat PVAN.
Professor A Ong at the University of Sheffield
£60,478 over three years
Title: ADPKD as a disease of hyperphosphorylation: investigating a new paradigm of disease pathogenesis.
ADPKD is the most common genetic kidney disease and is caused by mutations in one of two genes, PKD1 or PKD2. ADPKD patients can suffer a progressive loss of kidney function leading to kidney failure. Currently there are no effective ways of predicting, halting or slowing this process. This project seeks to investigate how changes in phosphorylation control the function of polycystins in the body. A better understanding of how phosphorylation influences the activity of polycystins could lead to new treatments to prevent cysts forming in patients with ADPKD.