Renal Inflammation Group

The Renal Inflammation Group is based in the Trinity Translational Medicine Institute and drives a translational medicine research programme focused on the investigation of pathogenesis and discovery of biomarkers of disease in glomerulonephritis. The principal research interest is in ANCA vasculitis, an autoimmune condition that causes multi-organ failure as a consequence of overwhelming necrotising inflammation affecting small blood vessels.  For more information on ANCA vasculitis, please see the following links:

Vasculitis Rare Disease Group of UK and Ireland
Patient information 
Patient support in Ireland: Vasculitis Ireland Awareness
Clinician information

We are addressing the following questions:

1. What biomarkers accurately track glomerular inflammation in ANCA vasculitis?
2. What molecular and cellular events lead to myeloid cell dysfunction in ANCA vasculitis?
3. What underpins the large variability in clinical phenotype observed in ANCA associated vasculitis?
4. How can we minimise the adverse events associated with existing immunosuppressive therapies?
5. How do we predict relapse in ANCA vasculitis?

The overarching goal of the group is to develop predictive tools that model molecular, biomarker, patient-reported and clinical data streams to support personalised care to patients with autoimmune disease. The group interfaces directly with the Chronic Disease Informatics Group and the RIV Registry and Biobank to achieve this goal. 

To assist in answering these questions, we have set up an infrastructure that allows the collection of longitudinal clinical data in the form of a national registry and biobank, which is linked to a basic science laboratory.