07 March 2024
More than 500 million people worldwide live with diabetes, and up to half of them will develop chronic kidney disease as a result. It’s a massive cost to society and scientists are working around the clock to try to find new treatments for this chronic health condition.
UniSA Research Fellow Dr Jantina Manning and her team have made an exciting discovery in this field, identifying a new gene that could be an early diagnostic marker for diabetic kidney disease.
It appears that reduced levels of the Nedd4L gene are present at the very early stages of the disease, even before kidney damage can be detected. Dr Manning’s lab is researching whether this gene can be manipulated to help maintain blood glucose levels.
In this video, Dr Manning explains the need to better understand how genetics plays a role in diabetic kidney disease, which will lead to better treatments.
Image: Haematoxylin and Eosin-stained diseased kidney section under the microscope.
