The Renal Research Group at UiB and its main collaborative institutions
A multidisciplinary, clinically oriented renal research group
Hovedinnhold
The Renal Research Group
The Renal Research Group belongs to the Department of Clinical Medicine at UiB with strong links to the Renal Unit at Haukeland University Hospital (Helse Bergen). The group is an open forum for clinical and translational kidney research in Bergen and has been directed by Prof. Hans-Peter Marti since 2013. Traditionally, the Renal Research Group has combined human/animal studies of disease mechanisms and molecular kidney biopsy analyses with epidemiological studies of risk factors of chronic kidney disease.
Senior Scientists belong to the group, including Prof. Hans-Peter Marti. Prof. Einar Svarstad and Camilla Tøndel, PhD, direct all clinical and histological Fabry studies together with Rannveig Skrunes, PhD. Prof. Bjørn E. Vikse at UiB and Helse Fonna (Haugesund Hospital), the winner of the Falch's Junior Award 2017 of our Faculty of Medicine, has a particular focus on epidemiology and on proteomics (e.g. IgA nephropathy). Associate Prof. Sabine Leh, the renal pathologist of the Norwegian Kidney Biopsy Registry (NKBR), is instrumental in all studies related to kidney histology, including automated image analysis. Associate Professor Thomas Knoop and Professor Rune Bjørneklett have translational and clinical projects on IgA nephropathy and C3 nephropathy.
The Core Group
Within the Renal Research Group, we have a core group under the direction of Hans-Peter Marti, as the principal investigator (PI). Postdoctoral fellows: Øystein Eikrem, MD, PhD, Lea Landolt, MD, PhD, Nazar Mohamed, BDS, MSc, PhD.
Researchers (former postdocs): Jessica Furriol, PhD, Tarig Osman, BDS PhD, and Omnia Shadad, BDS.
PhD students: Ole Petter Nordbø, Tony Chen, Eleni Skandalou and August Hoel.
Forskerlinje students: Even Koch, Mariell Rivedal and Sigrid Nakken.
Methodologies
RRG members have extensive experience with the key methodology of all ongoing projects, including the proposed PhD theses. Examples are clinical epidemiology, statistics & bioinformatics, investigation of renal histology by stereology & automated image analyses, laser capture microdissection of nephron compartments of renal biopsies, next-generation sequencing of mRNA & miRNA, proteomics, CRISPR/Cas9 technology, cell culturing and interventional animal studies.
Laboratory infrastructure
Respective laboratory space including animal facilities and all necessary apparatus is available in our institution at the University of Bergen. They are either located in the Laboratory Building at Haukeland University Hospital (e.g. Renal Laboratory on the 7th floor) or in the adjacent Building for Basic Biological Research (BBB) of the Department of Biomedicine. More info
Funding
The studies of the core group are funded mainly through the support of Helse Vest, the Research Council of Norway and four competitive international industry grants (Sanofi-Genzyme, Takeda-Shire, Amicus and Alexion) to Hans-Peter Marti. More info
Current Main Research Projects
The core group of Hans-Peter Marti is involved in three main projects:
- Norwegian Study for Personalized and Data-based Management of Children and Adolescents with Chronic Kidney Disease (minimal change disease and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis). Research Council of Norway, 2023-2028
- Patient-tailored management of hypertensive nephropathy through digital technologies. Helse Vest, 2020-2024.
- Novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets in human and animal Fabry nephropathy as well as in human membranous nephropathy, open and ongoing.
We would be very happy indeed to welcome students from all over Norway to join these projects!
Key Collaborative Institutions
We foster an interdisciplinary, well-funded research environment that involves a spectrum of institutions in academia and industry.
The Norwegian Kidney Biopsy Registry (NKBR) at Helse Bergen: NKBR provides Fabry nephropathy and membranous nephropathy samples.
Department of Clinical Science, at UiB: Gunnar Houge for CRISPR/Cas9 studies, and Nicolas Delaleu, PhD, for bioinformatic analyses of RNA sequencing data.
Biomedicine at UiB: Nils Halberg, PhD, for CRISPR/Cas9 studies.
Helse Stavanger: Terje Apeland, PhD, Nephrology, Stavanger University Hospital, for analyses of redox biomarkers.
NTNU and St. Olav University Hospital, Trondheim: Stein Hallan and Marius Altern Øvrehus for hypertensive nephropathy analyses.
University of Bristol, Bristol, UK: Moin Saleem from pediatric nephrology for the NURTuRE biobank regarding MCD/FSGS biosamples.
Karolinska Institutet, Sweden: Annika Östman Wernerson, Maria Herthelius, Anna Witasp and Sigrid Lundberg from pediatric nephrology regarding MCD/FSGS biosamples.
University of Helsinki, Finland: Peter Horvath for single-cell podocyte sequencing in archival kidney biopsies, and Andreas Scherer for bioinformatic analyses.
University of Oslo (UiO): Trond Jenssen, PhD and Melinda Raki, PhD, from Rikshospitalet for Fabry and diabetic nephropathy studies.
University of Porto, Portugal: João Paulo Oliveira and his group for analyses of perioxidasin in chronic kidney disease.
Publications
Publications of the Renal Research Group are accessible through the following link.
