The main topic of the seminar which took place at the Biogem Institute in Ariano Irpino on Friday 14 March was “quinolinic acid as a potential mediator of neurotoxicity in the kidney-brain axis”. The seminar, strongly supported by the scientific director of Biogem, Giovambattista Capasso, and, as always, open also to the external public, focused in particular on the nephrology area, in which the star of Kumar Sharma, director of the Precision Medicine Center at the University of Texas Health in San Antonio (USA), shines bright. The professor, author of over 200 original publications and with over 27.000 citations, illustrated his latest studies on the kidney-brain axis. A central research field in the international CONNECT program, which has seen Biogem as a protagonist in recent years. Hence, the hypothesis of starting a scientific collaboration of the Biogem nephrology area ​ with the group led by Professor Sharma, until now mainly engaged in diabetic nephropathy. This is a sector to which he owes his fame, thanks also to several publications in international journals, such as Science, PNAS, Cell Metabolism, Diabetes, Diabetes Care, JCI, JASN, Kidney lnternational, Cell Metabolism, and Nature Medicine.

Just as an example, the most recent work of Professor Sharma has identified new biomarkers of kidney and heart failure in patients with diabetes and new metabolic therapies that could revolutionize the treatment of diabetic complications.