Awardees

Supervisors: Dr. Andrew D. Paterson and Dr. York Pei
Award: KRESCENT Fellowship
Institution: University Health Network
Year: 2017-2019

Dr. Matthew Lanktree began research training during an undergraduate degree in bioinformatics at the University of Waterloo, followed by a combined M.D./Ph.D. at the University of Western Ontario studying complex disease genetics. He then completed a residency in internal medicine and a clinical fellowship in nephrology at McMaster University before moving to the University of Toronto to pursue a post-doctoral research fellowship in heritable kidney diseases that include polycystic kidney disease. Dr. Lanktree has received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the American Society of Nephrology, and is a member of the Kidney Foundation’s KRESCENT program. Over the last 15 years Dr. Lanktree has published over 50 articles in high impact journals in genetics and medicine and has set a goal of improving outcomes for patients with polycystic kidney disease.

Therapies for polycystic kidney disease attempt to maintain kidney function and slow progression towards kidney failure, which eventually results in dialysis or kidney transplantation. Patients at the highest risk of disease progression have the most to benefit from early initiation of aggressive therapy. Large kidney size can help identify patients at high risk of progression, as can identification of the associated genetic mutation. We seek to incorporate these data sources, imaging and genetics, and clinical risk factors to improve our ability to identify patients at highest risk of kidney failure. Additionally, we will further stratify patients and attempt to identify new treatments and possibly a cure for polycystic kidney disease through the analysis of genetic and molecular tests of blood, urine and kidney cyst fluid combined with “big data” from international collaborations.