Translating knowledge of the human genome into clinical practice in nephrology dialysis and transplantation: the renal genome network (ReGeNet)

The success of unravelling the human genome in 2001 [1] has provided clinical researchers with an estimate of the number of genes, their relative position on chromosomes and access to the entire nucleotide sequence. Despite the promises of the daily press/ news that this achievement heralds the introduction of genetically tailored treatment and the answer to every known disease, the reality of the situation is very different. Six years later, nephrologists may justifiably ask how this knowledge of the human genome has had impact on their clinical practices and may correctly conclude that it has made, as yet, a little impact. While encouraging advances have been made in relation to single-gene disorders for a large majority of the renal patient population, renal damage and its complications should be considered as complex traits with contributions of multiple genetic and environmental factors. So, facing this complexity, what is required to translate novel genetic knowledge into improved clinical practice? The answer, we suggest, lies in three areas