McLaughlin scientist receives $1.5 million for kidney research

Great Falls’ scientific mouse house announced more good news Monday — Harvard-educated scientist Pin-Xian Xu has been awarded a $1.5 million, five-year grant for kidney research.

By RICHARD ECKE
Tribune Staff Writer

"Our hope is that this research can lead to the identification of more genes that are involved in renal (kidney) development and disease," said Xu, research scientist at McLaughlin Research Institute.

The grant to McLaughlin comes from the National Institutes of Health’s Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and it may lead to three additional staff members at McLaughlin, including two research assistants and a post-doctoral fellow.

The NIH decided Xu’s project "has a high likelihood of resulting in very significant contributions to the field." Xu joined McLaughlin in 1999 and already has one NIH grant under her belt.

The decision marks her second NIH grant in two years.

"That says she’s doing outstanding research," said McLaughlin spokesman Dave Crum.

For several years, Xu has been studying genes that help the body’s organs develop. She has studied a rare congenital defect called Branchial-Oto-Renal Syndrome linked to ear and kidney problems.

Her work with the syndrome revealed some of the same genes are involved in the development and malfunction of both the ears and kidneys. Xu has identified an important role for two genes in the early stages of kidney development, according to a McLaughlin news release.

The goal of the research team, which includes collaborators from Columbia University and Harvard Medical School, is to identify mechanisms at the molecular level that control early kidney formation by examining the role of specific genes and others that interact with them.

The research aims to increase understanding of kidney disorders and disease, and it may shed new light on diabetes, the country’s leading cause of kidney failure. Xu will be lead investigator under the grant.

The announcement comes on the heels of news April 30 that McLaughlin scientist George Carlson would receive a $1.1 million Defense Department grant to study prion diseases, including so-called mad cow disease. Since that announcement, mad cow disease was confirmed in a cow in Northern Alberta.

Another $1.1 million prion grant goes to the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle.

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