Back to results

The Role of MircoRNAs in Acute Kidney Injury

Over 10,000 patients are admitted to Irish Intensive Care Units (ICU) every year. While the mortality varies according to the case mix of various units, approximately 30% of unscheduled ICU admission patients do not survive. The principal reason for admission to an ICU is for assessment of organ failure and the provision of organ support. Mortality rates and long term morbidity increase with increasing number of organs failure. Despite several decades of evidence-based medicine, much is still not understood regarding the timely diagnosis, pathology and prognostication of organ failure. In particular, the ability to diagnose kidney injury early could clinically revolutionize this area similar to advances seen with development of early biomarkers of cardiac injury in the treatment of acute myocardial infarction. In this research,I will join the team at the UCD School of Medicine, led by Prof Peter Doran and Prof Patrick Murray, who are seeking to identify and develop new biomarkers of end organ damage, allowing detection of evolving organ failures earlier, facilitating more timely therapeutic interventions and allowing us to determine which patients are likely to have a therapeutic response. In my project, I will seek to identify whether microRNAs have a role in regulating AKI and its outcomes.