# The Assessment of Acute Kidney Injury Sub-phenotypes in the Intensive Care Unit

> **NIH NIH K23** · UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON · 2020 · $188,127

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Pavan Bhatraju, MD, MSc plans for a career as a molecular epidemiologist physician scientist in the field of
acute kidney injury (AKI) in the intensive care unit (ICU). The objective of the proposed career development
award is to provide necessary training in research methods to facilitate Dr. Bhatraju’s transition to independent
research. The mentorship available at the University of Washington (UW) in the Division of Pulmonary and
Critical Care Medicine (PCCM) and the Kidney Research Institute are outstanding. He will continue his work
under the mentorship of Drs. Mark Wurfel (PCCM) and Jonathan Himmelfarb (Nephrology) at the UW.
Collaborators on his multi-disciplinary research team span the disciplines of genome sciences (Dr. Gail Jarvik),
epidemiology and biostatistics (Dr. Ronit Katz) and the application of translational research to the study of AKI
(Dr. Chirag Parik). To complement the support from this research team, Dr. Bhatraju will augment his Masters
in Science in Epidemiology with advanced coursework at the nationally-renowned UW School of Public Health.
AKI is common in the ICU and is associated with morbidity and mortality. Currently we have no effective
pharmacological therapy for AKI. Limitations in drug development may be partly explained by the biological
and clinical heterogeneity in patients included in the AKI phenotype. To address these limitations, our lab has
identified two distinct AKI sub-phenotypes (also known as endotypes) using an innovative modeling approach,
latent class analysis. We found that the two AKI sub-phenotypes had different clinical characteristics,
biomarker patterns and risk of poor short-term outcomes. We also developed and validated a 3-variable
prediction model to prospectively identify the AKI sub-phenotypes. Overall, these findings provide the
foundation for Dr. Bhatraju’s K23 research proposal. The objectives of the proposed research include: 1)
evaluate the association of AKI sub-phenotypes with major adverse kidney events by 1 year; 2) determine the
genetic risk factors associated with the development of AKI sub-phenotypes, and; 3) identify specific
pathophysiologic differences between the AKI sub-phenotypes through a targeted urinary protein analysis.
This award will provide essential research training in genome sciences, biostatistics, advanced epidemiology
and will broaden his bench lab skillset. This proposal leverages Dr. Bhatraju’s unique access to multiple
critically ill cohorts, access to a research infrastructure at the UW to enroll a prospective ICU cohort collecting
urine, plasma and DNA samples and access to world-class didactic training program at the UW School of
Public Health. His overall research goal is to use techniques of molecular epidemiology to develop a
pathophysiologic based classification of patients with AKI to improve risk prognostication, discover novel
genetic risk factors and inform precision based strategies to prevent and treat the develop...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9894791
- **Project number:** 5K23DK116967-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
- **Principal Investigator:** Pavan Kumar Bhatraju
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $188,127
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-03-15 → 2024-01-14

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9894791

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9894791, The Assessment of Acute Kidney Injury Sub-phenotypes in the Intensive Care Unit (5K23DK116967-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9894791. Licensed CC0.

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