ASN Foundation for Kidney Research announces launch of Securing the Future Campaign

The ASN Foundation for Kidney Research (ASN Foundation) is proud to announce the public launch of its Securing the Future Campaign during ASN Kidney Week 2016. This campaign coincides with the 50th anniversary of the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) and the 20th anniversary of the Career Development Grants Program.

Since 1996, ASN, and now the ASN Foundation, has awarded $40,000,000 to clinicians, researchers, and educators to advance innovations that can improve care for patients with kidney diseases. To date, $30,000,000 of these awards has been invested in investigators transitioning to independent careers in kidney research through the Career Development Grants Program.

The Securing the Future Campaign aims to raise critical funding for the Career Development Grants Program to ensure that support for early career investigators will be available today, tomorrow, and forever.

"The ASN Foundation's Securing the Future Campaign is vital because it will guarantee funding where it is much needed, help to attract the best and brightest to careers in nephrology research, and result in a growing pool of individuals who are working to cure kidney diseases," said Securing the Future Campaign Co-Chair and ASN Past President Thomas D. DuBose, Jr., MD, FASN.

Kidney disease affects more than 20 million Americans, or 1 in 9 people. Approximately 650,000 have kidney failure and are dependent on dialysis or a transplant to stay alive--costing the Medicare program nearly $35 billion annually. This cost represents approximately 7% of the Medicare budget and is greater than the entire National Institutes of Health budget. In contrast, the government invests only $585 million--roughly $29 per patient per year--on kidney research.

Today, the ASN Foundation is calling on the broader kidney community to join in the effort to increase critical research funding in the field. ASN leaders have already personally pledged more than $1 million to the campaign. As a true partner in this effort, ASN is prepared to match up to a total of $10 million in gifts during the next five years.

"Because ASN and the ASN Foundation are the leading advocates for, and largest private funders of kidney research, the responsibility to support and increase funding for kidney research falls to us," said Securing the Future Campaign Co-Chair and ASN Past President Thomas H. Hostetter, MD. "Let's come together to fund research for early career investigators. Support for these young nephrologists is vital not only to sustain the profession but even more importantly to improve treatments and quality of life for patients. Please join us."