MultiOmic Health has partnered with the Centre for Public Health at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) on a collaborative project to develop data-driven diagnostic tools for diabetic kidney disease (DKD). This project, which will take place over two years, is partially funded by a grant awarded by Innovate UK’s £20 million Advancing Precision Medicine programme to MultiOmic.
MultiOmic and QUB plan to use their collective expertise to explore molecular-level differences and similarities in kidney disease amongst patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. This project, which started in December 2023, aims to identify diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for DKD progression, as well as likely complications within specific patient subpopulations.
Chronic kidney disease (CKD), which is common in patients with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, has an economic cost of £7 billion per year in the UK, including £6.4 billion in direct costs to the NHS, according to MultiOmic’s press release. With CKD becoming more prevalent in patients with diabetes, they state, this poses a substantial challenge, as it helps to increase the risk of cardiovascular events and kidney failure.
The “one-size-fits-all” approach that is favoured presently, according to MultiOmic, is failing to address specific needs that are tailored to members of a diverse diabetic population. They feel that the solution to these limitations is a data-driven approach that offers a way to improve and advance personalised approaches for DKD management.
Chief executive officer of MultiOmic Health, Robert Thong, explained that “previous studies in diabetic kidney disease lacked molecular-level comparisons using the multiple omics modalities that are needed to understand the combined impact of genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors. Through this approach, we aim to deepen our understanding of the factors contributing to the onset and progression of this disease across the diabetes population. This first-of-its-kind study has the potential to revolutionise how we approach and treat diabetic kidney disease.”
The co-principal investigators of the Northern Ireland Cohort of Longitudinal Ageing (NICOLA) study, Bernadette McGuinness (Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK) and Niina Sandholm (University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland) also commented on this news. McGuinness stated that “our collaboration utilises resources from the NICOLA study, which was initiated in 2014 to investigate ageing and lifestyle impact on health outcomes. With over 8,500 participants from Northern Ireland aged 50 and above, the study provides a robust baseline to leverage further research. Combining QUB’s phenotype and molecular expertise with MultiOmic’s computational analysis capabilities, we are excited to use this opportunity to generate multi-modal omics data for a specific sub-cohort to uncover new insights in DKD.”
Adding to her colleague’s statement, Sanholm said that “since 1997, the Finnish Diabetic Nephropathy Study (FinnDiane) has become a pivotal resource in diabetes research, playing a key role in uncovering the risk factors and mechanisms of diabetic complications in patients with type 1 diabetes. Now, in this project, we are eager to explore the molecular parallels of kidney disease between type 1 and type 2 diabetes, helping to push forward strategies in diabetes prevention and treatment.”
