Bhanu Prasad Medical Research Fund

The Bhanu Prasad Medical Research Fund was created to support medical research, education, and innovation that can improve the lives of patients and families.

For me, this fund is deeply personal and closely connected to a condition I have been working on since 2015: Loin Pain Hematuria Syndrome, or LPHS.

LPHS is a rare and devastating condition. Patients experience severe flank pain, often with blood in the urine, but many are told that their tests are normal or that there is no clear explanation for the intensity of their suffering. For some patients, the pain is disabling. It affects their work, their families, their mental health, and their ability to live a normal life. It is one of those conditions where medicine still does not have all the answers.

My work in LPHS began with a simple but urgent clinical question: could we relieve this pain by treating the nerves that carry pain signals from the kidney? This led to the use of renal denervation, a procedure originally developed for resistant high blood pressure, as a possible treatment for LPHS pain. What began as a clinical idea became the start of a much longer research journey.

Since 2015, I have continued to search for answers. We have studied kidney biopsies to better understand what may be happening inside the kidney. We have looked at genes through exome and genome sequencing to see whether inherited factors may explain why some patients develop this condition. We have worked to carefully phenotype patients, meaning we try to describe the condition in a more detailed and meaningful way so that LPHS is not treated as one vague diagnosis, but as a real illness with patterns that can be studied.

The next stage of this work is even more detailed. We are now moving toward RNA transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. These approaches allow us to look deeper into the biology of the condition: which genes are being switched on or off, which proteins are present, and which metabolic pathways may be abnormal. The goal is not simply to describe LPHS. The goal is to find the cause, identify measurable markers of disease, and ultimately move toward better treatment and, one day, a cure.

This is the heart of the Bhanu Prasad Medical Research Fund.

It is about patients who have waited too long for answers. It is about conditions that are painful, poorly understood, and underfunded. It is about asking the questions that matter when patients are suffering, and existing explanations are not enough.

The fund may support research in LPHS, kidney disease, chronic pain related to kidney disorders, home dialysis, chronic disease management, patient education, rural and remote health delivery, quality improvement, and the training of future clinicians and researchers. It may also help support early-stage ideas that need initial funding before they can grow into larger research projects.

Throughout my career as a nephrologist and Professor of Medicine, I have seen how research can directly change patient care. Good research does not always begin in large laboratories or major centres. Sometimes it begins with a patient sitting in front of you, telling you that they are in pain, and with the clinician refusing to accept that nothing more can be done.

This fund reflects that belief.

It is intended to support practical, compassionate, patient-centred research. It is meant to help turn clinical questions into better care. It is also meant to support students, trainees, and health care teams who want to improve the lives of patients through research and innovation.

At its heart, the fund is about hope. Hope for patients with LPHS. Hope for people living with kidney disease. Hope that careful research can uncover causes, identify treatments, and bring relief to patients who have lived for too long without answers.

Thank you to everyone who chooses to support this fund. Your generosity can help advance medical research, strengthen patient care, and support the ongoing search for better treatments and cures.