natURx: A platform technology to transform biomarker data into biomimetic therapeutics

ADTKD-MUC1 is a rare kidney tubulointerstitial disease with high prevalence in Cyprus. Following years of research efforts by the MMRC and others, the genetic basis of the disease was identified 15 years after the critical region containing the causative mutation on chromosome 1q21.1-21.2 was published by the MMRC. Since 2015, this project has been revived and now receives non-competitive funding from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, to perform an observational study by including local patients, which now entered its 8th consecutive year. Through this process, a critical amount of data and samples have been collected, biobanked, and used for biomarker discovery.  

The ADTKD research group at the CoE, led by Dr Gregory Papagregoriou, has elevated the outputs of the project to create a revolutionary pipeline where omics profiles coming from urinary extracellular vesicles (uEVs) from patients with ADTKD-MUC1 are overlayed to longitudinal clinical data to produce information regarding the pathobiology of the disease, new putative druggable targets, and personalized drug delivery vehicles.