Assessing the impact of genetic variation on chronic kidney disease in Africa (360G-Wellcome-220740_Z_20_Z)

In sub-Saharan Africa, over 50 million people have chronic kidney disease (CKD) making Africa the continent with the highest burden of CKD in the world. With rapidly increasing urbanisation, trends towards unhealthy diets, obesity and increases in metabolic risk factors, the projected increase in the prevalence of CKD may be even greater in Africa than in other parts of the world. Over the past decade, genome-wide association studies have uncovered numerous genetic determinants of CKD in European and Asian ancestry populations. These studies have led to numerous novel findings, which are helping improve our understanding of factors and pathways affecting both normal and pathologic kidney function. However, to date, there is no known published GWAS of CKD in any continental African population. Key goals include \- Conduct large-scale genomic studies of CKD in Africa which will potentially provide new opportunities to identify the biological determinants of CKD in individuals of African ancestry. \- Leverage the low linkage disequilibrium between genetic markers in African populations to conduct fine-mapping of novel and previously identified signals in the trans-ethnic meta-analysis. \- Develop a Polygenic Risk Score for CKD risk in Africa and assess whether cardiometabolic traits/diseases are causally related to the risk of CKD in Africans.