IU researchers' efforts to combat polycystic kidney disease not limited to the laboratory

At 8 a.m. Saturday (Sept. 19) at IUPUI’s Michael A. Carroll Soccer and Track Stadium on the IUPUI campus, hundreds of Hoosiers with a common cause — the eventual defeat of polycystic kidney disease — will begin gathering for a fundraising walk (with a 1-mile and 3-mile route) that starts at 9 a.m.

Among them will be IUPUI biology professor Dr. Bonnie Blazer-Yost and other IU researchers who have dedicated much of their careers to seeking a treatment — and perhaps, an eventual cure — for a genetically inherited disease that can make kidneys grow as large as footballs before renal failure occurs. As many as one in 400 people suffer from PKD, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and the disease accounts for 2.2 percent of kidney failures reported in the U.S. annually, according to the U.S. Renal Data System.

To date, there is no cure for PKD — or even a way to halt its progress other than getting a transplant. However, Blazer-Yost and her colleagues — a team that includes Dr. Sharon Moe and Dr. Robert Bacallao (both of the IU School of Medicine), Dr. Vicente Torres of the Mayo Clinic and others — are about to launch an innovative study that, if successful, could pave the way toward giving PKD sufferers longer, more productive lives while managing the disease.

Stay tuned to the Innovate Indiana blog next week for more details on their effort. Meanwhile, persons interested in taking part in the walk and learning more about PKD can visit this website. The walk is organized by the Kansas City, Mo.,-based PKD Foundation, which describes itself as the nation’s largest private funder of PKD research.