Kidneys

2026-03-25 · Queen Mary University of London & University of the Witwatersrand (KidneyGenAfrica consortium, ~26,000 continental Africans + 81,000 African-ancestry diaspora)

Largest genomic study of kidney function in Africa reveals new genetic risk factors

The KidneyGenAfrica consortium's GWAS of kidney function (eGFR) in ~26,000 continental Africans plus 81,000 African-ancestry people elsewhere found 4 genome-wide significant loci in continental Africa (2 new) and 19 in a broader pan-African analysis (3 new), and confirmed APOL1's kidney-disease-risk variants occur at lower frequency in continental Africa than in African Americans. The main finding: genetic risk scores built from genetically similar populations predicted kidney function meaningfully better than scores built on larger but more distant datasets -- a direct argument for the population-specific reference data this topic's own eGFR-equation history turns on, not a change to the equation itself.

2026-08-19 · Garrett ME et al., Blood Advances 2026 (PMID 42616615)

Why kidneys fail in sickle cell disease: genetic clues from both sides of patients’ ancestry

Kidney damage is a common complication of sickle cell disease, linked to early death. Splitting each patient’s genome into its African and European stretches, researchers searched both for genes tied to kidney function (eGFR) and found 12 regions in the African stretches and 38 in the European ones, supporting the idea that sickle cell kidney disease differs from other kidney disease. The same population question this topic turns on, asked inside one person’s genome.