Studying the interaction between genes and environment in Indigenous Kidney Disease

Kidney disease seriously affects the Australian Indigenous population with it killing more people from remote communities than anything else. We have studied the genetics of this disease and have identified several genes that contribute to the disease. These are involved in normal renal development. There is also a strong environmental component. We are making mice with changes mimicking the human genetic changes and are looking for a student to study these mice in the context of environmental influences that might be influencing the onset of disease in the human populations affected.