Following a kind invite by Kidney International, Prof. Belen Ponte and I wrote a short commentary on the genomic screening of kidney volumes paper by Sara Monteiro-Martins and colleagues. Using convolutional neural networks (CNNs) the group led by Anna Köttgen conducted parallel GWAS of the volumes of kidney cortex, medulla, and sinus in 40K people.
Writing this piece gave us the opportunity to reflect on the heterogeneous manifestations of CKD, a disease with many different legs, and how CNNs may open several opportunities to fill existing knowledge gaps. Time ahead will be exciting.
Our piece is available here: Genomics of kidney volumes: one size does not fit all, Kidney Int 2026
