Todd Bradley, PhD
Vice Chair, Institutional Biosafety Committee; Director, Immunogenomics Program; Associate Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine; Research Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Kansas School of Medicine
Full BiographyTodd Bradley, PhD, Genomic Medicine Center, received $346,542 for a study titled “Defining cellular and molecular signatures of inflammation in people with suppressed HIV that promote chronic kidney disease.”
Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is an effective treatment for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that leads to longer lives for people living with HIV. However, even when the virus is well controlled, many individuals experience ongoing increased inflammation due to the lifelong viral infection. Over time, this persistent inflammation can lead to organ damage as individuals age. In particular, people living with HIV have increased risk of developing chronic kidney disease (CKD). Early research suggests that not all inflammation is the same. People with HIV may fall into different “inflammatory profiles” or endotypes, some of which are associated with abnormal kidney function. What remains unclear is which specific patterns of inflammation drive the development of kidney disease and who is most at risk for accelerated development of CKD. This study plans to determine what early biological inflammatory features are linked to and may predict the development of CKD in people with HIV on ART.
Dr. Bradley and collaborators will identify inflammatory endotypes in people with HIV that have varying levels of kidney disease compared to those with healthy kidney function to determine which endotypes predict CKD. The study will also prospectively analyze urine and blood from individuals with HIV to understand how different inflammatory patterns affect immune and kidney cell function. Lastly, the team will use advanced organ models known as “kidney-on-a-chip” to directly test how inflammation damages kidney tissue and test therapies to reverse this damage.
Dr. Bradley hopes this work will lead to better tools to predict kidney disease risk in people with HIV and pave the way for new anti-inflammatory treatments.
“People with HIV are living longer lives, but many still develop serious complications like CKD,” said Dr. Bradley. “Our goal is to identify early warning signals in the immune system so we can predict risk, intervene sooner and ultimately develop targeted treatments that protect kidney health and improve quality of life.”
For this project, Dr. Bradley is a multiple principal investigator alongside Justin Pollara, PhD, Duke University School of Medicine.
The funds come from an R01 grant to Duke University from National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). As the prime grant holder, Duke University received $832,783 from the NIDDK for the first year of the project and is expected to receive a total of $3,120,020 over four years, subject to the availability of funds.
The research described in this announcement is supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under award number 1R01DK146765-01 and covers a project period of Feb. 1, 2026-Nov. 30, 2029.
The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.