# Molecular Precision Nephrology Core

> **NIH NIH P50** · CHILDREN'S HOSP OF PHILADELPHIA · 2022 · $130,829

## Abstract

MOLECULAR PRECISION NEPHROLOGY CORE SUMMARY
The goal of the Molecular Precision Nephrology (MPN) Core of the PCEN is to facilitate
identification of novel targets and expand therapeutic options for children with kidney disease.
The currently available clinical, biochemical and histological descriptors for kidney disease are
insufficient, as they poorly predict prognosis and therapeutic response. A revolution in precision
molecular measurements is underway. Novel precision diagnostic methods can accurately
monitor genome-wide gene expression, regulation, function, cellular history and cellular
interactions in kidney biopsy samples and can highlight targetable changes. Novel precision
diagnostic methods are critical in pediatrics due to the paucity of defined therapeutic targets,
heterogeneity of causes of kidney diseases, and barriers to conducting large clinical trials.
There are several critical barriers to the clinical and research implementation of molecular
precision tools in pediatric nephrology: 1, the lack of available reference (normal healthy) tissue
samples 2, absence of a high quality uniformly processing core for pediatric kidney samples 3,
non-linearity of currently used single cell analytical methods, generating non-transferrable
information between datasets and necessitating single large atlasing efforts 4, shortage of
dedicated bioinformatics effort for the generation of a pediatric kidney atlas. The MPN Core will
address these barriers and will usher in a new phase of pediatric kidney disease research.
Specifically, the MPN Core will:
Create the CHOP-KID resource: the CHOP kidney tissue bank, containing fresh, frozen, fixed
embedded tissue samples from healthy and diseased pediatric kidney samples from an ethnically
diverse population and an associated de-identified database containing demographic, clinical and
histological annotation.
Generate reference single cell expression, epigenome, spatial expression and proteome maps
for kidney development and maturation and serve as a core to process and compare disease
tissue samples for the PCEN research base.
Deliver a harmonized integrated multi-modal pediatric kidney cell atlas and foster its use in the
engaged community. This will be accomplished using new computational tools for identification
of disease-causing genes, cell types and mechanisms, focusing on cell type annotation,
reconstruction of cell lineages and cell-cell communications, and integration of spatial multi-omics
single cell information, clinical, demographic, and genetic data.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10529734
- **Project number:** 2P50DK114786-06
- **Recipient organization:** CHILDREN'S HOSP OF PHILADELPHIA
- **Principal Investigator:** KATALIN SUSZTAK
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $130,829
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2017-09-18 → 2027-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10529734

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10529734, Molecular Precision Nephrology Core (2P50DK114786-06). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10529734. Licensed CC0.

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