The microbiome in the gut-kidney-cardiovascular axis

Chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease cause enormous suffering for patients and high costs for society.

It has been suggested that the microbiome (bacteria and other microbes) in the gut and urine play an important role for the development of these diseases but community-based data are scarce.

The overall aim of this proposal is to investigate the role of gut and urinary microbiome in the development of kidney and cardiovascular disease in a large community based cohort (SCAPIS) with detailed data on kidney and cardiovascular phenotypes.SCAPIS is the largest study to date with gut microbiome data analysed with state-of-the-art whole genome shotgun metagenomics (n=10,000).

In addition, with this proposal I will carry out the first-ever urinary microbiome-wide association study in the community.

Moreover, I will create a unique multi-omics database with microbiomics, metabolomics and proteomics analyses in faeces, blood and urine and adress our research questions with novel state-of-the-art advanced machine learning methods.

Moreover,  will apply Mendelian Randomization analyses in order to establish causal associations that may help guide future experimental and intervention studies.

If successful, the present research proposal may open up new horizons for research that in the end may lead to improved diagnosis, prognostication and treatments for patients with kidney or cardiovascular disease in clinical practice.