Overview:

The University of Montreal Nephrology Research Consortium is a recent initiative between investigators involved in research targeting renal disease at Université de Montréal. More than 15 investigators from 5 different institutions affiliated with Université de Montréal are participating in this initiative.

Participating institutions include:

1. Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM),
2. Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont (HMR),
3. Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur de Montréal (HSCM),
4. Hôpital ste-Justine
5. Faculté de médecine, Université de Montréal.

The investigators involved in the consortium are funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CHIR), Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec (FRSQ), Kidney Foundation of Canada, Diabetes Foundation and other public or private funding agencies. Consortium members include experts in the field of basic vascular and glomerular pathophysiology, genetics, pharmacology, pharmaco-epidemiology, bioethics, and clinical epidemiology. Consortium members also include experts in genetic statistics and bioinformatics affiliated with the department of mathematics at Université de Montréal. The consortium leader is Dr. F. Madore from the Nephrology division at Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur de Montréal. He is assisted in this task by Dre Marie-Josée Hébert and Vincent Pichette.

Objectives:

The global objective of the University of Montreal Nephrology Research Consortium is to foster high quality research in renal populations.

More specifically, the goals are:

1. To promote translational research to the clinical benefit of the renal patient.
2. To develop close collaborations with national and international research groups.
3. To provide education, training opportunities and exchange for young investigators
4. To promote quality, best practice and high standards during the conduct of research activities

One of the major scientific aims of the consortium is to elucidate the determinants of renal damage and its complications, both with respect to natural course and the response to therapeutic intervention. The following determinants are investigated:

• factors influencing the development of co-morbid disease e.g. accelerated cardiovascular disease in uremia
• the interactions between pathobiology and therapy for chronic kidney disease e.g. dialysis modality, transplantation and drug treatment
• biomarkers predicting outcome of therapeutic modalities.

The University of Montreal Nephrology research consortium pursues its aims by promoting and facilitating translational and epidemiological studies in renal disease by:

• establishing cohorts of patients at different stages of renal damage (pre-dialysis, dialysis, transplant) for collaborative study by the consortium
• establishing new cohorts and coordinating the availability of existing renal cohorts for prospective study by the consortium
• collecting valid clinical and para-clinical data and harmonizing data collection methods across different cohorts
• providing expertise in molecular biology, vascular biology, genetics, pharmacology, bioethics, and epidemiology
• enabling the study of rare renal conditions and morbidities.

Research Themes:

The development of the Consortium is centered on the following main research themes:

1. Transplantation and immunology
2. Pharmacology, physiology, and signaling
3. Metabolic and vascular complications associated with kidney disease.