Glomerulonephritis Laboratory - Monash University

Monash Centre for Inflammatory Diseases

Inflammatory diseases, targeting the filters of the kidney (glomeruli) glomerulonephritis (GN), are a major cause of chronic kidney failure. The most severe forms with the worst outlook are found to have infiltrations of immune cells giving glomerular a crescentic appearance (crescentic GN).

There are several different diseases causing crescentic GN. Major discoveries over the last few years have shown that many of these are forms of autoimmunity targeting antigen components of glomeruli or auto antigenic enzymes in neutrophils (myeloperoxidase (MPO)). Auto antibodies binding to neutrophils induce conformational changes leading to the glomerular localisation and injurious lysosomal discharge into these sensitive filters.

Autoreactive anti-MPO T cells then target injurious macrophages to amplify this injury. The group has a comprehensive researcher program attempting to define the key molecular events that direct these processes. These include:

• Studies in patients determining the critical peptides inducing autoimmunity, the nature of these injurious immune responses and the abnormality of tolerance that underlie them.
• Studies defining how antibodies induce glomerular leukocyte influx.
• Critical molecular pathways and cells inducing injury that may be therapeutic targets.

	Chief Investigators To read about the chief investigators of this laboratory, Professor Stephen Holdsworth and Professor Richard Kitching, please click Read More. Both investigators are clinician scientists who work in the nephrology and immunology departments. Their clinical work informs and stimulates the research to define the basis of disease and potential new less toxic therapies that may prevent and treat crescentic glomerulonephritis. Read More
	Research Areas Collaborating with our research partners, we are testing hypotheses relating to the following areas of how immune responses induce renal injury: Read More
	Publications For staff publications please click Read More. Read More
	Lab Staff To contact the staff please click Read More. Read More
	Student Projects Honours and PhD Read More