Integrating Genetics Care in Nephrology to Study and Empower Precision Medicine

One in ten Canadians have kidney disease which can ultimately require treatment with dialysis or kidney transplant or lead to death. Treatment of kidney disease depends on us understanding its cause. Genetic causes of kidney disease, due to changes in people’s genes or DNA, are increasingly recognized as important causes of adult and childhood disease. We do not know how many people in British Columbia have genetic kidney diseases or their impacts on health.
One in eight people with kidney disease do not have a clear explanation for the cause of their kidney disease, termed unexplained kidney disease. We think there are unidentified genetic changes that explain some of these peoples’ kidney disease.
We will look at how many people in British Columbia have genetic kidney diseases based on clinical genetic testing and how genetic kidney diseases impact their health . This will include a few pre-specified groups of people with common genetic conditions. We will then perform whole genome sequencing on people with unexplained kidney disease to try to find new genetic changes that explain why they have developed kidney disease. We expect these findings to improve the health of people living with kidney disease in British Columbia.