Renal Pre-Competitive Consortium (RPC²): discovering therapeutic targets together

Despite significant effort, patients with kidney disease have not seen their outcomes improved significantly over the past two decades. This has motivated clinicians and researchers to consider alternative methods to identifying risk factors, disease progression markers, and effective therapies. Genome-scale data sets from patients with renal disease can be used to establish a platform to improve understanding of the molecular basis of disease; however, such studies require expertise and resources. To overcome these challenges, we formed an academic-industry consortium to share molecular target identification efforts and expertise across academia and the pharmaceutical industry. The Renal Pre-Competitive Consortium (RPC²) aims to accelerate novel drug development for kidney diseases through a systems biology approach. Here, we describe the rationale, philosophy, establishment, and initial results of this strategy.