Awardees

Award: KRESCENT New Investigator Award
Institution: University of Manitoba
Year: 2011-2014

Dr. Juliet Ho obtained her M.D. from the University of Western Ontario and is a new investigator at the University of Manitoba. Kidney transplantation is one of the therapeutic options available to replace the loss of kidney function, offers better life expectancy and improved quality of life compared to dialysis, and due to immunosuppressive drug therapies life expectancy is quite good over the short term. However, when a transplanted kidney fails the return to dialysis is associated with lower quality of life, sensitization, additional financial cost and decreased life expectancy.

Chronic kidney transplant injury is the leading cause of transplant failure and 60-80% of patients with chronic transplant kidney injury develop progressive scarring of the kidney from potentially treatable causes. The goal of Dr. Ho’s project is to develop non-invasive diagnostic urinary tests to identify patients at risk of developing kidney transplant scarring early in the course of their injury, and proteomic techniques will be used to identify novel urinary proteins that may indicate specific causes of scarring. Patients at risk of kidney scarring can then be targeted for monitoring and therapy to prevent progression of the injury.