Delineating the kidney brain axis in children with severe malaria (KID-BRAIN)

The overall goal of this career award is to build Dr Batte into an independently funded physician scientist improving survival of children with acute kidney injury (AKI) and identify interventions that will enable children to thrive. Dr Batte will delineate mechanisms of kidney-related brain injury in children with severe malaria. Dr Batte is a Lecturer and a Pediatric nephrologist at Makerere University college of health sciences. From his past research work, he has established evidence-based approaches to AKI diagnosis and phenotypic characterization. He has explored the utility of point-of-care tests in evaluating AKI, and has mechanistically compared severe malaria AKI and non-malaria febrile illnesses related AKI demonstrating differences in endothelial activation and immune activation. He has also evaluated brain injury and neurological outcomes of children with AKI following acute malnutrition and sickle cell anemia. He has published an invited review highlighting challenges in the diagnosis and management of AKI in children and outlined priorities for future research, which included detailed neuro-developmental assessments following AKI in children with severe malaria. Dr Batte will use the 75% protected time for the next 5 years working with his mentors to understand how acute changes in brain-kidney crosstalk translate to long-term injury and to identify modifiable pathways amenable to intervention to promote adaptive kidney and brain recovery following severe malaria. Dr Batte has developed an educational plan that builds on his past training and addresses research training gaps, that once filled will provide the basis to propel him into an independent research career. This K43 will be structured around specialized training in neurobehavioral evaluation along with biomarker testing and interpretation. Dr Batte will attain a number of skill-sets in kidney and brain biomarker testing and interpretation, skills in brain imaging interpretation, data analysis and conduct of longitudinal studies, and neurobehavioral evaluation of children. It is expected that at completion of this award, with the developed expertise and data generated, he will elucidate modifiable pathways of kidney-brain cross talk in severe malaria, setting the stage for an R01 application and a platform for future intervention studies to prevent injury and promote brain and kidney recovery following severe malaria.

NIH Project details

Vulnerable Populations

Aug 2023 — Apr 2028

$96,471

Uganda