Since its inception in 1982, the Foundation has allocated nearly $28 million to dedicated PKD research, clinical and scientific grants, fellowships, and conferences. This sustained financial investment has yielded tangible outcomes at local, national, and global scales. This includes implementing funding opportunities for emerging investigators, support for innovation, and leveraging funding from prestigious institutions such as the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense.
The PKD Centers of Excellence program is based on the belief that the best way to provide PKD-centered support is through patient-focused, comprehensive care coordinated and supported by an integrated team.
The ADPKD Registry is patient-powered and patient-entered. By answering questions about their health and PKD’s impact on their life, participants help create an essential resource for researchers to develop better outcomes that reflect patient perspectives.
Grants & Funding
We’ve proudly leveraged over $1B in federal research funding and dedicated $28M in PKD Foundation research project funding.
Treatment Pipeline
Learn about the treatments for PKD currently being developed in the United States.
Fellowships
To move us forward in finding treatments, we select outstanding researchers as recipients of PKD Foundation fellowships.
What We Do
WE GIVE HOPE. We fund research, advocate for patients, and build a community for all impacted by PKD.
Resources for Clinicians & Researchers
From diagnosis to dialysis, everything you want to know about PKD.
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- The Basics of PKD
- ARPKD
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- Young Children
Clinician Contact Form
Have a question, comment, or concern? Reach out today.
Clinician & Research FAQs
Find answers to the most commonly asked questions from clinicians and researchers.
Contact
What specific research initiatives or projects does the PKD Foundation currently support?
Since the Foundation’s establishment in 1982, it has invested nearly $60 million in dedicated PKD research, clinical and scientific grant awards, fellowships, and scientific meetings. The Foundation’s financial commitment over the years has seen results on a local, national, and even global level, including initiating funding for young investigators from around the world, supporting innovative research ideas, and providing seed funding to allow researchers worldwide to apply for larger National Institutes of Health and Department of Defense grants.
Our research team has also led the launch of the nation’s largest patient-powered ADPKD Registry and brings together multiple research stakeholders in the PKD Outcomes Consortium. In 2022, the Foundation launched the PKD Centers of Excellence program, to ensure access to PKD-specialized care and accelerate the translation of research studies to the clinic.
Together, these programs form a research continuum that spans from pre-clinical basic science to clinical trials to translational efforts to maximize efforts toward our goal to end PKD.
What funding opportunities are available for researchers, and what are the application requirements and deadlines?
In 2022, we awarded new research funding to 11 outstanding PKD researchers. In 2023, we’ve increased that number to 13! The goal of the Research Grant and Fellowship Programs is to fund critical research to increase understanding of the genetic and pathological processes involved in PKD and to accelerate the development of potential therapies for PKD patients.
What resources does the PKD Foundation provide to support research efforts?
Learn all about our research efforts here.
How does the PKD Foundation engage with the research community?
The PKD Foundation engages with the research community in several ways.
- Through our researcher newsletter, researchers can opt-in to receive notifications about funding opportunities (funding from the PKD Foundation and external partners), educational opportunities, events, ongoing research, and more.
- For researchers seeking participants for clinical trials, studies can be submitted to us for consideration and promotion through our ACT Alerts program.
- Through the PKD Outcomes Consortium (PKDOC), the PKD Foundation collaborates with the Critical Path Institute, representatives of the pharmaceutical industry, PKD clinicians, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Together, they facilitate clinical trial development for PKD therapies by establishing a clear regulatory pathway for the pharmaceutical industry to evaluate the effectiveness of potential treatments.
What is the process for disseminating research findings to the scientific community?
We are committed to providing resources for medical professionals to educate and empower their patients with PKD to manage and improve their health. To provide medical professionals with in-depth information about various aspects of PKD, we have teamed up with UpToDate, an evidence based, peer reviewed online information resource.
Christina Cebrian
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
“The Cebrian lab is immensely grateful to the PKD Foundation donors that generously fund our project. None of our success would be possible without your contribution”
Michael Caplan
Yale
“The forward thinking funding that was provided to us by the PKD Foundation and its generous supporters have allowed us to test our ideas, develop proof of concept, and explore their potential for translation to pre-clinical tests of efficacy”
Zhang Li
UAB
“It was my honor to have this fellowship to support my postdoctoral training. I would like to give special thanks the donors of the PKD Foundation.”
Yan Zhang
Michigan Technological University
“We appreciate the generous support from the PKD Foundation to allow us to perform PKD research at Michigan Tech”
Max Liebau
University Hospital of Cologne
“The detailed and long-term work on scientific questions for a rare disease like ARPKD requires ample support. thank you to all the donors of the PKD foundation, for making clinical research possible that will hopefully directly translate into better treatment of patients in the near futu”