Dear KPMP Participant,

Every discovery begins with a single brave step. For the Kidney Precision Medicine Project, that step was your choice to share a small piece of your kidney so scientists could look deeper than ever before. Your biopsy is helping researchers see common kidney disease in a way that has not been done before. Here is a plain-language summary of a recent scientific paper published using KPMP data.

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Original Article Title: Case Series of Histopathological Findings in Chronic Kidney Disease: Insights From the Kidney Precision Medicine Project 

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Plain Language Title: What KPMP Saw When We Looked More Closely at Common Kidney Disease

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What Was Studied?

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects millions of people. Diabetes and high blood pressure are the most common causes, but doctors rarely perform kidney biopsies for them. This means most of our knowledge comes only from people with unusual or severe symptoms. 

People in this study had kidney disease linked to diabetes, high blood pressure, or both – not unusual or severe symptoms. Your participation in KPMP fills this gap by showing what kidney disease looks like for most patients. 

KPMP uses advanced tools to look closely at kidney cells. We use three types of microscopes, including an electron microscope that magnifies up to 100,000 times. At this scale, a single kidney cell—normally so small that seven could fit across a human hair—appears as large as a dining room table! The cell's tiny energy centers, called mitochondria, look about the size of a banana. This level of detail shows features that regular tests completely miss. 

Doctors were asked to guess the participant’s diagnosis before and after using these advanced tools. 

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Key Findings

• About half of people enrolled as diabetic kidney disease (DKD) showed classic diabetic damage.
• Some had a mix of diabetic and high blood pressure-related injury.
• A few had other kidney diseases, such as IgA nephropathy or fibrillary glomerulonephritis.
• Many had nonspecific changes, where the exact cause was unclear.
• Even with common causes of CKD, kidney tissue showed wide variation among people with the same diagnosis.
• In 2 out of 3 DKD participants the mitochondria was damaged. Finding this type of damage in people with common, stable kidney disease is new and significant.

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What This Means for Patients‍

• Most doctors expected the biopsy to simply confirm their original diagnosis. Instead, 1 out of 4 said the biopsy changed their thinking. 
• New Insights: For more than 3 out of 4 participants, the biopsy gave doctors new information to talk more clearly about future kidney health. 
• Care Adjustments: For more than 1 out of 3 participants, the findings directly led to changes in their medical care. 

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Big Picture Takeaway

The kidneys did not change. Our ability to see into them changed. That is making all the difference.

Your courage made this possible, and there is much more to discover. These are just a few of the exciting findings from this study. To read the full article, ask your local KPMP research team for a copy or Visit our KPMP publications page. We will keep sharing what we learn because none of this happens without you. Thank you!

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Atlas Metrics:

786 Biopsies    |     >447K Data downloads     |     71 KPMP Publications

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Want to attend one of the All-KPMP meetings virtually or in-person?

Ask your site's research coordinator how you can attend an upcoming meeting. This meeting is attended by many members of the KPMP team. We would love to see you there!

Upcoming All-KPMP meetings: (virtual or in-person)

• September 17th & 18th, 2026 (Hyatt Bethesda, MD)
• March 3rd & 4th, 2027 (Hyatt Bethesda, MD)

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Tell a friend…

Do you have family, friends or co-workers who might be interested in
learning about KPMP? Please give them this link to the KPMP Introduction video:
kpmp.org/for-participants

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Sincerely,