Kenneth E. White, PhD

Bridge Grant Pilot Program

Institution: Indiana University

How would you sum up your overall research focus in one sentence?

This project, undertaken with my collaborator Mark B. Meyer, PhD, from the University of Wisconsin, is about the discovery and characterization of the long-sought transcription factor that drives the actions of FGF23 signaling in the kidney which is critical during chronic kidney disease progression.

Provide a brief overview of the research project you will conduct with help from the grant.

With assistance from the KidneyCure funding, we were able to strengthen our proposal through the development of additional animal models that demonstrate our transcription factor is key to regulating vitamin D metabolism. We were also able to generate additional preliminary data using this funds for resubmission of our application.

What inspired you to focus your work in this area?

The FGF23 peptide hormone and its downstream actions have been known for several decades, however the exact mechanism of how FGF23 works on the genome remained unknown until our work within this grant. Both our labs have been searching for this mechanism for quite some time, and it was a natural fit to combine our expertise and collaborate on these new findings.

What impact do you hope your research will have on people with kidney diseases?

Active vitamin D is dysregulated in both rare and common disease involving elevated FGF23 and PTH, but since we didn't know how these systems interacted, there were no targets for patient management. We hope in the future our work could lead to deciphering these mechanisms and providing new angles for interventions.

What has surprised you most about your career?

We're in an amazing time for research, questions using new ways to more quickly generate new animal models of disease in parallel with identifying molecular changes at the single cell level are now possible, which we couldn't even imagine 5 years ago. These significant developments have led to answering important translational questions in studying FGF23 production in bone and its actions on the kidney.

What are the major challenges facing nephrology research today?

The rapid development of single-cell, multiomic, and genomic technologies has created incredible opportunities to discover new pathways controlling kidney physiology and disease. The challenge now is to integrate these discoveries with mechanistic biology so that the new findings can be translated into an understanding of kidney function and into future therapeutic approaches. Continued support for collaborative research will be essential to maintain the full potential of the research and clinical work we all do.

In one sentence, please describe the importance of having grant funding available through KidneyCure.

These funds were a lifesaver for our labs so we could maintain staff and generate some needed new preliminary data to secure funding.

Something you may not know about me is…

Ken: I'm a classic car enthusiast, with a particular appreciation for '63–'65 Rivieras. Mark: my daughter and I were in a Google commercial in 2015 from a home YouTube clip that aired during the Oscars Best Picture commercial break. It was quite a shock to have us broadcast across the globe.

In my free time I like to…

Ken: I like to play several different sports and over analyze every decision made by the Buffalo Bills. Mark: argue with my teenage girls and travel the country for their volleyball dreams.