We (nephrologists and nephrology researchers) are now confronted with the great increase in the number of patients with chronic kidney disease progressing to chronic renal failure. The reason is apparently because we do not have efficient therapeutics for these patients. To understand functions of the kidney and mechanisms of kidney disease progression at a molecular basis or to identify pathogenic agents , we have started an international collaborative research, Human Kidney and Urine Proteome Project (KHUPP) as an Initiative Project of Human Proteome Organization (HUPO) to analyze human kidney and urine by proteomics.
All nephrologists and nephrology researchers who are interested in this project are welcome to participate in this project. The mission of this project is to disclose proteins in the normal and disease kidney and urine and to elucidate functional interaction of the proteins for better understanding the kidney function and to find biomarkers for kidney diseases and to contribute to develop the therapeutics.
Discussion to organize the Human Kidney and Urine Proteome Project (HKUPP) started early 2000's with several investigators who were interested in conduction of an international proteomics collaboration studies and the project was approved as a new HUPO initiative; Kidney Disease Project in Biomarker Initiative at the Initiative Roundtable in Beijing in October, 2005. The mission and timeline of the project were discussed and approved at the pre-project meeting in Philadelphia in November, 2005. The chair and co-chairs were nominated as follows: Chair; Tadashi Yamamoto (Niigata University, JAPAN), Co-chairs; Mark A Knepper (NIH / NHLBI, USA), Pierre M. Ronco (INSERM Unit 702, FRANCE), and Robyn G Langham (University of Melbourne, AUSTRALIA). According to the action plans, HKUPP website was set up (URL:http://www.hkupp.org) in May, 2006. To introduce the project and HUPO actions, a satellite meeting was held in Helsinki in June, 2006.
In June 2006
Chair: Tadashi Yamamoto