About the KRI

The Kidney Research Institute was formed in 2008 in Seattle, home of historic breakthroughs in kidney disease treatment. Among those milestones are the Scribner shunt, hardware to facilitate repeated dialysis treatments, developed in 1962, and erythropoietin, a drug to treat anemia in dialysis patients, developed in 1989.

The Kidney Research Institute draws on a body of clinical data from Northwest Kidney Centers, founded in 1962 as the world’s first out-of-hospital dialysis facility and one of the KRI’s founding partners. UW Medicine, our other founding partner, includes one of the world’s most highly regarded medical schools. It has been a magnet drawing renowned researchers in biotechnology and global health to the United States’ Pacific Northwest.