Evotec has joined the NURTuRE consortium to drive kidney disease focused drug discovery based on patient derived-data. NURTuRE is uniquely positioned to collect clinical data at the U.K. Renal Registry and analyze samples of 14 kidney disease centers in the U.K., constituting one of the largest kidney patient registries worldwide.

The NURTuRE consortium will initially focus on chronic kidney disease (CKD) and nephrotic syndrome (NS) patients and will leverage established institutions such as the U.K. Renal Registry and Evotec's integrated kidney drug discovery platform. Alongside other consortium members, Evotec will access patient samples including kidney biopsies, blood, serum and urine for an in-depth histological and molecular analysis to identify and validate targets and biomarkers.

Kidney disease has emerged as a global epidemic. Currently no treatment options that have the potential to slow down or stop CKD disease progression are available. Detailed understanding of patho-mechanisms based on well-characterized patient samples will allow the identification and exploration of novel genetic and metabolic components, which are key drivers of kidney diseases. This approach will lead to a new generation of drug candidates in the field of kidney diseases being developed based on human biology and pathophysiology.

Dr Cord Dohrmann, chief scientific officer of Evotec, commented: "We are extremely proud to be an integral part of this unique consortium which establishes the world's largest registry of kidney disease patients with access to complete clinical records and a comprehensive set of tissue samples. This initiative will allow the identification and validation of novel approaches based on clinical data. This is a very important step for Evotec to expand its leadership in kidney disease drug discovery, but even more importantly for the kidney disease field in general including affected patients."

"Kidney Research UK has led the collaboration to deliver NURTuRE, a vital resource for the renal research community", said Elaine Davies, director of Research Operations at Kidney Research UK. "The anonymized data contained within the NURTuRE biobank has the potential to unlock answers to some of the biggest questions about CKD and NS. We are delighted to be working with Evotec and our other partners to accelerate new advances that will benefit kidney patients and their treatment and care."