On 10th-12th June 2025, the UK Kidney Association Annual Conference 2025 and the UK Kidney Week 2025 was successfully concluded in the picturesque coastal city of Bournemouth. On the day, a workshop proposed and organised by Dr. Qihe Xu, King’s College London, featured his latest research findings. The workshop focused on the role of parietal epithelial cells (PECs) — the “bricks of the glomerular wall” — in kidney health and disease. Scholars from Beijing, London, Oxford, Cardiff, and other regions across the UK engaged in lively discussions and reached agreements for further collaboration.
The workshop was sponsored by Kidney Research UK (KRUK), UK’s national charity dedicated to eliminating kidney diseases by supporting research and innovation. Dr Xu was awarded KRUK’s first ever and sole grant dedicated to Chinese herbal medicine research in 2007. This project paved the way for Good Practice in Traditional Chinese Medicine Research in the Post-Genomic Era (2009-2012)—the first ever and sole major EU-China collaboration under EU’s 7th Framework Programme dedicated to traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) research—and King’s CICM. During the Conference, Dr. Xu and KRUK colleagues discussed the prospect for King’s CICM and KRUK joining forces to promote innovation in kidney research and care through an integrative medicine approach.
How can TCM theory inspire modern nephrology? Read the following workshop report to find out: