Centre for Kidney and Bladder Health

About us

This new centre brings together discovery scientists and clinicians from UCL’s Department of Renal Medicine at the Royal Free Hospital and the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health Kidney Development and Disease Group.

These two leading academic kidney institutions are now a single research centre with close ties to the clinical services for adults at the Royal Free Hospital and for children at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Our plans

Over the next ten years, our new Centre will aim to:

• Perform internationally leading basic science and clinical research to improve the diagnosis and treatment of kidney and bladder diseases.
• Develop and implement advances in diagnostic technologies and devices, delivering these to the NHS for maximal patient benefit.
• Drive new clinical trials, leading to new, more targeted drug treatments, working in collaboration with industry.
• Develop new treatment strategies in the fields of gene therapy and regenerative medicine for children and adults with kidney and bladder disease.
• Support and improve the transition of adolescent patients with kidney and bladder disease from Great Ormond Street Hospital to adult care at the Royal Free.
• Engage with patient groups and the public to disseminate our work and help inform our research strategies to optimise impact for patient care.
• Develop unique training opportunities for clinicians, and basic scientists to establish the leaders of the future.
• Transfer our knowledge locally, nationally, and globally through high-quality education programmes and international collaborations.

Our work

Our six research themes are led by international leaders in these fields and early career investigators. Cross-cutting strategies highlight key areas of focus for the Centre. These build on our strong track record in renal inflammation, developmental biology and genetics, vascular disease, and cell biology, alongside new areas we wish to develop, such as adolescent and transition nephrology, renal cancer and urology.

The Centre is uniquely placed to deliver on these ambitious goals, by bringing together discovery scientists and clinicians working in the kidney and bladder fields from across UCL. It is one of the largest and most diverse academic kidney and bladder research institutions in the world, and the only research Centre globally to join-up care pathways so that both children and adults with kidney and bladder disease have access to the best treatments.

Collaborators

We have significant internal collaborations and links with other UCL departments, including physiology, biochemistry, genetics, virology, rheumatology, infectious diseases, immunology, and clinical pharmacology.

UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health

External collaborators

Clinical collaborators

Teaching

Our staff contribute to the MBBS Medicine and several pre-clinical and biomedical science undergraduate courses. We also offer CPD short courses to trainee practitioners, both clinicians and scientists.

CPD

Our short courses run over two or three days. Each covers a wide breadth, ranging from the patient pathway to therapies to cutting edge science. The course faculty teams are recognised experts in their field and are drawn from the UK, Europe, and the United States. We run the following short CPD teaching courses.

MBBS

We provide nephrology training to MBBS medical students. Year 4 students take a four-week renal-endocrine block where they receive personal tutorials, small-group seminars, case-based exercises, and bedside teaching. They also attend clinics and visit community kidney care centres, gaining a broad insight into common renal problems faced by patients. They also get exposure to specialist renal medicine, including kidney transplantation and acute nephrology.

Students can apply for a four-week component in their final year to learn about specialist nephrology in detail. Here, they have access to the full range of our expertise and the Royal Free Renal Unit. They attend specialist clinics in renal inflammation/vasculitis, metabolic stone, renovascular, amyloid, nephrotic, acute post-transplant, and renal genetics outpatients. They attend ward rounds and radiology and pathology meetings and receive regular bedside teaching and tutorials from leading experts in all aspects of renal disease.

Teaching is conducted by department staff, alongside consultants from the clinical service, junior doctors, specialist nursing staff, dietitians, and other members of the multidisciplinary team. One-to-one sessions with our patients provide valuable insights into the experience of living with renal disease. We take a problem-based approach to teaching in our small group seminars, while e-learning resources complement face-to-face activities.

Department of Renal Medicine Patient Partnership Group

This group of Royal Free Hospital renal patients and Royal Free Hospital renal clinicians meet several times a year to discuss issues such as:

• Lay/patient input into research project design and grant applications.
• Facilitating surveys/questionnaires of specific patient groups to inform the research agenda.
• Communicating research results to the patient and carer population.
• Identifying patients to undertake specific roles in research (e.g. patient co-applicants or committee members).

Current members

• Caryl Bryant
• Ben Caplin
• Diane Hecht
• Funmi Lawal
• David Myers
• Nii Plange
• Alan Salama

For further information, please contact Kate Henderson (kate.henderson@ucl.ac.uk).

Department staff