BU Research Blog

Representatives from Kidney Research UK conducted a site visit to Bournemouth on Monday hosted by the Department of Life and Environmental Science (Dr. Paul Hartley and Shruthi Sivakumar) as well as Prof. John Fletcher. The event was attended by clinician-researchers from Bristol and Brighton Universities and was intended as a ‘meet and greet’ between the charity and its funded researchers. The day was highly productive and KRUK’s representatives were very impressed by BU’s research labs, projects and learning environment (especially the spanking new Leica SP8 confocal microscope).

BU currently holds an Innovation Award from KRUK for the use of fruit flies to study the genetics of kidney failure in diabetes. This work is important because kidney disease is a common condition and major contributing factor to cardiovascular disease worldwide. Astonishingly, there are still very few treatments beyond dialysis and a very poor life expectancy (3 years) when diagnosed with kidney disease in your 40’s.

The charity stressed that they are highly receptive to new applications that tackle this problem. Funding is not restricted to basic science or clinical research…so if you have any good ideas…let them know and get an application started!!

http://www.kidneyresearchuk.org/research

An informative powerpoint by KRUK is available as pdf format – let me know if you’re interested in having a copy (phartley@bournemouth.ac.uk)