by Anne Crawford
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| Dr Matthew Snelson |
Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is estimated to affect 13 per cent of the population globally. It is associated with a two- to three-fold increased risk of death caused by the disease itself and also carries a higher risk to patients of dying from heart disease or stroke.
Patients with CKD have increased levels of uremic toxins – toxins produced by bacteria in the gut that are normally excreted in the urine in healthy people but which build up in those with CKD.
A recent PhD graduate of Monash University’s Central Clinical School has conducted a review of literature to understand how this happens as a base to eventually finding ways of preventing it by creating new therapeutics.
Dr Matthew Snelson, a winner of the CCS’s 3MT (three minute thesis) award, became interested in CKD as a clinical dietitian working in Perth. “I was very interested in the role of gut microbiota and the mechanisms by which diet affects disease outcomes,” he said. “The emerging evidence looking at the link between the gut and the kidney was a really interesting area.”
A/Prof Eric Chow from the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre was
in the Washington Post recently following publication of a paper on which he
was lead author. The paper, published in Sexually Transmitted Infections, found
that kissing with tongue may be a way to transmit oropharyngeal gonorrhoea, or
oral gonorrhoea, particularly among gay and bisexual men. The study team featured a number of other Central Clinical School researchers.
