New national role for Manchester clinical research nurse to help improve treatment for renal conditions

A Senior Clinical Research Nurse from Manchester Royal Infirmary has been appointed to a senior role to lead on renal research nationally.

Jean Winterbottom, Senior Clinical Research Nurse at Manchester Institute of Nephrology & Transplantation (MINT) laboratories has recently been appointed as the National Renal Lead, which will see her co-ordinate renal research across the UK.

Jean is currently the co-ordinator for a multicentre study, led by Professor Paul Brenchley, Director of Renal Research Labs, which looks to understand the autoimmune mechanism in membranous nephropathy, a rare kidney disease that affects 12 per million population. Membranous nephropathy leads to changes and inflammation of the structures inside the kidney that help filter water and fluids, which may result in loss of protein in the urine (proteinuria).

The original aim of the study was to sign up 23 transplant centres and recruit 300 patients recruited. However, through Jean and her team’s hard work they have already significantly exceeded these targets with 34 centres involved so far with around 500 patients recruited. Through the success of this research, the team has now developed the largest database in the UK of information for patients with membranous nephropathy (MN), which has led to Jean’s new national role. Future research that Jean is particularly keen to develop is the impact of occupational, domestic and environment risk of patients with MN.

Jean’s role as National Renal Lead will see her liaising with centres and research teams across the UK to develop new research projects and ideas. Jean will also liaise with other databases such as the UK BioBank  the UK Renal Registry and the National Registry of Rare Kidney Diseases (RaDaR) to share data on membranous nephropathy for research into prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

Speaking about her new role, Jean said: “I am excited to take on this new national role and I am looking forward to working with colleagues from across the country to develop new and innovative renal research. I’m passionate about highlighting the important role nurses place in conducting clinical research, and through my work I am keen to encourage more nurses to lead research in the area of renal.”

Jean has recently completed her PhD at The University of Manchester which focussed on the health related quality (HRQoL) of haemodialysis patients in the North West of England and one of her goals is to introduce the assessment of health-related quality of life for patients with renal disease in our area.