Mayo Clinic Polycystic Kidney Disease Research Core Center

The rationale of the Mayo Clinic Polycystic Kidney Disease Research Core Center (MPRC) is to provide reagents and data through the PKD-Research Resource Consortium (PKD-RRC) to the PKD community to facilitate breakthroughs in PKD research. The operational philosophy of the MPRC is to provide resources that can be transformative to the PKD community in areas of perceived need. The MPRC builds on a long history of PKD research at Mayo and uses the expertise of its faculty in genomics, radiological imaging, and gene editing to generate these reagents. The Center also builds upon biological resources and generated reagents including a large, well characterized cohort of autosomal dominant PKD (ADPKD) patients, a PKD and polycystic liver disease biobank, ADPKD patient DNA variant data, and developed radiological software to characterize PKD kidneys and liver. The MPRC has a single Biomedical Research Core, focused on the study of human ADPKD: The Human ADPKD Population and Materials (APM) Core. In addition, there is a Research Development Core (RDC) and an Administrative Core that oversees the operations of the MPRC, manages communications within the Center and with the PKD-RRC, and organizes the education and training part of the Center, including the Summer Student Enrichment Program. The APM Core focuses on providing deep, longitudinal phenotyping data, including radiological imaging images and genetic results from 1250 Mayo ADPKD patients, to enable investigators to better understand disease progression. Additionally, the Core will collect and distribute PKD serum, urine and kidney and liver tissue, to query pathogenesis. The RDC highlights Mayo expertise in vivo gene editing and imaging software development that can be further developed for breakthrough technologies. Overall, the MPRC will provide much needed reagents, tools, and expertise to transform PKD research in the US.