Active Research Studies

This is a registry for patients with kidney disease or a disease syndrome with a kidney component. Participants send in urine or hair samples which are used to generate stem cells. The stem cells are used to generate new kidney cells for the study of kidney disease and regeneration in the laboratory.

This is a multi-center consortium sponsored by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) that aims to work collaboratively to address major challenges to understanding the underlying biology of Minimal Change Disease, FSGS, MN and IgAN. The goal is to recruit and maintain a large cohort of patients (2,400) with glomerular disease and follow them prospectively with standardized clinical data and biospecimen collection. In April 2020 CureGN 2.0 launched, extending the study for an additional 5 years.

Patients interested in taking part in ongoing and future research studies are invited to join the KRI registry, a database that allows investigators to identify potential subjects for research. The registry increases patient participation in research at the KRI.

The purpose of the repository is to use banked data and specimens for the study of kidney disease in the future. Samples may come from hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis and chronic kidney disease patients, as well as people with normal kidney function. Some banked samples from PD patients will be added to the International Bio-PD study, a study that looks at genetic markers that impact how well peritoneal dialysis works at baseline. A second aim is to look at pathways that contribute to the decline of the PD membrane over time. More than 4,800 patients from the U.S., Europe and Australia will participate.

This study is sponsored by the Office of Rare Diseases, NIH, NIDDK, DHHS, NephCure Kidney International, and University of Michigan. It is a longitudinal observational study that, among others, aims to establish a collaborative, integrated and cost-effective investigational infrastructure to conduct clinical and translational research in FSGS, MCD, MN and childhood onset NS.

We launched the Seattle Kidney Study in 2004 to better understand risk factors and the progression of CKD to ESRD. Almost 700 people have enrolled in this study and we are recording their kidney disease symptoms, medications, physical activity and functioning, and collecting biological specimens.

Under a contract with the USRDS Coordinating Center at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis we analyze updated information on a survey we conducted among patients on diaysis at dialysis facilities in the greater Seattle and Nashville areas and their family members from 2015-2018 to produce an annual “patient experience” chapter for the USRDS Report.  The survey includes questions pertaining to multiple different domains of end-of-life care including engagement in advance care planning, treatment preferences, values around life prolongation, preferred role in making treatment decisions and expectations about prognosis.  The most recent chapter can be found here: https://adr.usrds.org/2020/end-stage-renal-disease/12-patient-experience-end-of-life-care-for-patients-with-esrd

This study evaluates views concerning providing genetic testing information about the Apolipoprotein (APOL1) gene mutation to patients and family members who may be at risk for kidney disease. The goal of the study is to address a bioethics concern, specifically to gain community input on the question of genetic testing for kidney disease risk in African American communities.

This study uses “real world” data to study the efficacy and safety of atrial fibrillation therapies in patients with chronic kidney disease. This study is evaluating ~250,000 patients with incident atrial fibrillation, with and without CKD, to evavaluate adverse effects of commonly used atrial fibrillation therapies and procedures. Further, the study will evaluate whether successful use of atrial fibrillation therapies and procedures reduces rates of stroke, progression of kidney disease, heart failure and death.

This study aims to assess a scenario-planning communication tool designed to help physicians and patients with advanced kidney disease arrive at treatment decisions aligned with patient goals, values, and preferences.

This project is a collaboration between Nortis Inc. and the University of Washington School of Pharmacy. The goal of this project is to develop commercially viable kidney proximal tubule microphysiologic systems (KPT-MPS) using rat and canine proximal tubule epithelial cells (PTECs) that can be used in pre-clinical drug development to identify potential nephrotoxicity.

The goal of this project is to model microvascular interactions with immune cells and humoral factors as initiating tubulo-interstitial disease in lupus nephritis and use a novel renal vascular tubular unit to create an integrated MPS model of lupus nephritis.

Using our ‘human kidney-on-a-chip’ microphysiological systems (MPS), this project aims to better understand the mechanisms of kidney involvement in COVID-19 infection to foster development of effective therapies beyond supportive care. We aim to 1) Characterize SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) receptor expression, binding, engagement and modulation in kidney proximal tubular epithelial cells, podocytes, and microvascular endothelial cells within human kidney and vascular MPS, and 2) Assess SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) candidate therapeutics including recombinant ACE 2, DPP-4 inhibitors, and angiopoietin 1 hyper-signaling constructs for ability to block kidney specific cellular uptake of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) and/or alter downstream signaling and injury phenotypes within human kidney and vascular MPS.

We hypothesize that kidney-on-a-chip microphysiological systems (MPS) will manifest patient-specific phenotypic responses in vitro commensurate with clinical trial outcomes in vivo, establishing a robust molecular and cellular basis for kidney precision medicine approaches.

This is a repository of fresh urine from healthy donors, that can be accessed by any researcher needing such a resource for their study. Up to 20L of urine will be available at any time.

This is a parallel group randomized controlled trial looking at insomnia in the dialysis population. 126 hemodialysis patients will be enrolled in community-based dialysis facilities in Seattle and New Mexico and randomized to 6 week treatment to telehealth cognitive based therapy, trazodone, or medication placebo. Response to treatment will be assessed after 6 weeks of treatment, and persistence of treatment effect will be ascertained at 25 weeks.

This complementary study to ROKIT will determine whether COVID-19 infection impairs the functioning of the kidney tubules in critical illness.

This study, conducted in partnership with Vanderbilt University, seeks to identify new methods of measuring kidney function in critically ill adults. The study will evaluate the secretory function of the kidney proximal tubules using novel methods and determine associations with prognosis and kidney drug dosing.

The goal of this project is to change the treatment paradigm for diseases affecting the podocytes, cells that physically filter the blood to form the urine, by combining therapeutics development with cell-specific delivery to enhance the natural ability of the body to repair and regenerate these highly specialized cells.

This is a multicenter follow-up study for PERL participants. PERL tested medication therapy for people with type 1 diabetes and early stage kidney disease. The PERL study aimed to see if taking allopurinol to decrease uric acid levels may prevent kidney disease in people with type 1 diabetes.

The KPMP consortia is focused on finding new ways to treat AKI and CKD. Renal tissue will be obtained from participating volunteers, and will be analyzed in an effort to redefine kidney disease in molecular terms and identify novel targeted therapies. The consortia will develop state-of-the-art methods to obtain and analyze these biopsies, linking information on cellular programs with kidney structure. The Kidney Research Institute serves as the central hub for this project.

KIND-HF is a prospective study of 400 patients admitted with acute decompensated heart failure at a UW hospital.. The study will compare traditional and novel measures of kidney function and the response to treatment for acute decompensated heart failure while in the hospital and post discharge.

The goal of this research is to develop a model system that predicts drug handling (especially drug excretion and kidney toxicity) in the human kidney.  Using this model, researchers will emulate healthy and disease related conditions.

The goal of this study is to evaluate new markers of kidney function that focus on the kidney tubules in people with cirrhosis of the liver.

Patients undergoing long-term dialysis with chronic pain needing opioids will be enrolled in a clinical trial to test multiple strategies to see if they help patients get off prescription opioids. Some patients will receive pain coping skill therapy (PCST) or usual care. After an initial period of treatment, people who are using significant doses of opioids will be randomly assigned to be offered treatment with buprenorphine or usual care, to determine if it allows for a decrease in use of full-agnoist opioids.

This study looks at patients with chronic kidney disease. The goal of this study is to examine a panel of clinically available and novel cardiac biomarkers measured in the blood of patients with kidney disease to identify novel mechanisms that contribute to the risk of heart disease in patients with chronic kidney disease.

This study looks at patients presenting to the Emergency Department with sepsis or septic shock. It examines associations between fluid management and time to antimicrobial administration with renal outcomes.

The goal of this work is to develop and pilot test a dedicated decision aid for conservative care to improve informed and shared decision-making for the treatment of advanced chronic kidney disease

This is a randomized clinical trial testing two agents that target mitochondria (the energy producing units of muscle):  coenzyme Q10 and nicotinamide riboside for improving exercise efficiency in people with chronic kidney disease.

This study is being done to find out whether treatment of major depression with the medication, Bupropion, Behavioral Activation Teletherapy (BAT), both, Clinical Management (CM) and/or placebo will improve depression, quality of life and overall functioning in CKD patients. The secondary purpose is to find out whether CKD patients will be able to tolerate these treatments.

This is a prospective observational cohort study enrolling patients admitted to the intensive care unit and at high risk for organ dysfunction, such as acute kidney injury or respiratory failure. Clinical data is collected till 90 days after hospitalization and biological samples are collected at two time points during hosptializaton.

This is a prospective observational cohort study that is enrolling patients with COVID-19 and patients with suspicion of COVID-19 but who ultimately are PCR negative. Biological samples are collected at three main time-points over hospitalization.

This is a multi-center, prospective, cohort study of CloudCath system for the early detection of peritonitis in patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis. The CloudCath system analyzes effluent dialysis solution for changes associated with peritonitis, and then uploads the data to a cloud portal for analysis. Participants are asked to use the CloudCath system for 12 continuous months.

This project will send a kidney model created through our Kidney on a Chip study to the International Space Station in order to understand how microgravity and other factors affect kidney function, and to use these discoveries to design better treatments for proteinuria, osteoporosis, and kidney stones on earth.

This prospective cohort study looks at incidence and severity of hypoglycemia in dialysis patients through use of a continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) device. The study aims to enroll up to 600 participants, along with non-dialysis control subjects. Patients undergoing hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis for kidney failure are eligible for enrollment.