Project 11

Manchester Renal Patient BioBank (MRPB)

Recently we have set up the Manchester Renal Patient BioBank, which has been supported by Kidneys for Life and University Hospital of South Manchester (UHSM) Endowment Fund. The East Sector of the Greater Manchester Renal Network includes dialysis centres in South Manchester (UHSM), Tameside, Prestwich, North Manchester and Central Manchester (Manchester Royal Infirmary). Central Manchester acts as the centre for acute nephrology, fistula services, transplantation and house the renal research labs which act as the focus for renal research across the Sector. We have established with ethical permission, a BioBank to collect and store samples (blood, DNA, serum & urine) from patients having renal disease, chronic kidney disease (stages 3-5), on dialysis and post transplantation. The intention is to recruit both existing patients and newly diagnosed patient which together will comprise several thousand patients at all stages of the renal pathway with follow up for a minimum of 5 years. A clinical set of data will be established at the time of the initial banking of the samples. An annual blood sample and clinical follow up data will be added for each patient who consents. The samples will be used for genetic, proteomic & metabolomic screening and biomarker assays where appropriate.

This will let us investigate the following:

  • The causes, epidemiology and outcomes of kidney disease.
  • The reasons some patients progress to renal failure and others don’t.
  • The reasons why some patients are better off with a particular dialysis modality.
  • The reasons why the vascular access site or peritoneal membrane function fails.
  • The causes of co-morbidity in uremia (eg. Cardiovascular disease).
  • The damaging pathologies associated with kidney transplantation (eg. Ischaemia reperfusion injury, acute and chronic rejection).
  • The links between complications experienced by an individual patient at different stages in the renal replacement pathway (with chronic kidney disease, on dialysis and post transplantation).
  • Designing the optimum therapies to preserve renal function.