New Renal Disease Genes Identified

Researchers have identified previously unknown molecules and regulatory pathways in human glomerular (renal) diseases.

A report in the April 2006 online edition of the Proceedings of the [U.S.] National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) describes how new bioinformatics approaches allow rapid characterization of shared promoter structures, which can be used to find new novel interacting molecules. The principles were applied to a set of genes linked to the unique functional unit of the glomerular slit diaphragm, and an evolutionary promoter model was generated.

Genome-wide scans using this promoter model predicted an unrecognized slit diaphragm molecule that was successfully identified. The authors show how a straightforward approach to comparative promoter analysis can identify regulatory pathways in tissue homeostasis and disease processes.

The analysis was a joint effort of the Medizinische Poliklinik, University of Munich (Munich, Germany), the University of Bristol's children's renal unit (Bristol, UK), the German Cancer Research Center (Heidelberg, Germany), and Sanova-Aventis (Frankfurt, Germany), led by Genomax Software GmbH (Munich, Germany).

Genomax analyzes eukaryotic gene regulation. The company's strategy and product integration allow efficient handling of low-level analysis from raw expression data, pathway/network analysis, and biologic classification and identification of the molecular basis for co-regulation on the gene-promoter level.



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