The Alport Syndrome Foundation (ASF), Pedersen Family, and The Kidney Foundation of Canada (KFOC) Research Funding Program have announced that joint funding has been awarded for two new research projects on Alport syndrome, a rare genetic kidney disease.
Dr. Hirofumi Kai of Kumamoto University in Japan has been awarded $100,000 for a two-year study, “Search for Therapeutic Reagents by Modeling Alport Syndrome in Mice and Humans.” Dr. Jeffrey Miner of Washington University in St. Louis has been awarded $100,000 for a one-year study, “5-Ht2b Antagonism as a Strategy to Prevent Renal Function Loss in Alport Syndrome.”
The Alport Syndrome Foundation and its partners have provided more than $2 million for Alport syndrome research and have funded researchers at several universities in the US and in Australia, Japan, Germany and Canada.
Alport syndrome is a rare hereditary kidney disease that causes kidney failure, hearing loss, and vision abnormalities. It leads to kidney failure in 50% of the boys with the predominant, X-linked form of the disease by age 25 and in 90% by age 40. These patients require dialysis or a kidney transplant. Some girls with the syndrome are affected similarly to boys but most see later disease progression and many have milder symptoms.