Renal Physiome Project
The Renal Physiome project involves renal physiologists, both modelers and experimentalists, from laboratories around the world. Anyone working on related projects, interested in getting involved, or simply seeking information can contact Randy Thomas in Evry, France ( r.thomas@ibisc.fr). The aim is to improve our understanding of renal physiology and pathophysiology through the development of integrative mathematical models of kidney function. An important aspect involves the development of open web resources and cooperation towards common standards for terminology.
Particular resources include:
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QKDB, a universally accessible database of quantitative experimental measurements of kidney function and structure (in humans and also in animal models and epithelial cell lines used to study kidney function). QKDB is open to anyone for consultation and search of its contents and is accessible to renal physiologists (under password control) for data entry. We are actively extending QKDB so that it will soon be able to accomodate a wider variety of data, including time series, images, and even videos.
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A model repository is under development for interactive exploration of published mathematical models of kidney function at all levels, including individual membrane channels and transporters, models of solute and water absorption/secretion in various nephron segments, medullary models of solute and water recycling among nephrons and vasa recta in the urine concentrating mechanism, and so on. For progress reports, see the sites http://www.dis.unimelb.edu.au/staff/andrewl/KidneySim.htm and http://www.lami.univ-evry.fr/~srthomas/kidneysim/
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An Epithelial Modeling Toolbox is under development. This will provide kinetic descriptions of the major ion channels and membrane transporters involved in solute and water absorption and secretion in the various segments of the nephron as well as in other transport epithelia. These can be combined to build customized models of epithelial transport.