Kidney Compass: Navigating Clinical Trials

At the World Congress of Nephrology 2026 in Yokohama, Japan, growing attention is being paid not just to whether therapies improve outcomes in chronic kidney disease, but how they work at a mechanistic level. In this episode of Kidney Compass , host Brendon Neuen, MBBS, PhD, spoke with David Cherney, MD, PhD, about the REMODEL trial, a mechanistic study designed to better understand the kidney-pro...

Iron deficiency is increasingly recognized as a clinically meaningful yet underexplored contributor to morbidity in kidney disease, extending beyond its traditional association with anemia. In populations such as kidney transplant recipients, where graft function may be stable, many patients continue to experience impaired physical function, reduced quality of life, and lingering fatigue. As evide...

The treatment landscape for IgA nephropathy (IgAN) continues to evolve at a rapid pace, and new data presented at the World Congress of Nephrology (WCN) in Yokohama, Japan, suggest a potential shift in how clinicians approach disease modification in high-risk patients. In this episode of Kidney Compass , hosts Shikha Wadhwani, MD, MS, and Brendon Neuen, MBBS, PhD, spoke with Vlado Perkovic, MBBS,...

As the treatment landscape for IgA nephropathy grows increasingly complex, new data presented at the World Congress of Nephrology 2026 in Yokohama, Japan, are beginning to clarify how emerging therapies may work together. In this episode of Kidney Compass , hosts Brendon Neuen, MBBS, PhD, and Shikha Wadhwani, MD, MS, sat down with Hiddo Heerspink, PhD, PharmD, to discuss the phase 2 ASSIST trial,...

New phase 3 data released by Vor Bio underscore the potential of telitacicept, a dual BLyS/APRIL inhibitor, as a disease-modifying therapy for IgA nephropathy (IgAN) , particularly for patients at high risk of progression. In this special edition episode of Kidney Compass: Navigating Clinical Trials , hosts Brendon Neuen, MBBS, PhD, and Shikha Wadhwani, MD, MS sit down with study investigators Jic...

Welcome to Kidney Compass: Navigating Clinical Trials! In this special edition episode of Kidney Compass: Navigating Clinical Trials , host Brendon Neuen, MBBS, PhD, is joined by Sophia Zoungas, MBBS, PhD, an endocrinologist and head of the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University, to discuss a post hoc analysis of the phase 3 SURPASS-CVOT trial from American Society of...

In this special edition episode of Kidney Compass: Navigating Clinical Trials , host Brendon Neuen, MBBS, PhD sits down with Daniel Gale, PhD, MB BChir, is the director of the UK-based RaDaR Registry and the St Peter's Chair of Nephrology at University College London, at the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Kidney Week 2025 to discuss a phase 2 trial of setanaxib in Alport syndrome and the unm...

In this special edition episode of Kidney Compass: Navigating Clinical Trials , host Shikha Wadhwani, MD, MS, sits down with Brad Rovin, MD, Lee A. Hebert Distinguished Professor of Nephrology at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, to discuss updates in lupus nephritis at the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Kidney Week 2025 , including a late-breaking analysis of the phase 3 REGE...

In this special edition episode of Kidney Compass: Navigating Clinical Trials , Brendon Neuen, MBBS, PhD, doubles as a host and special guest as he offers host Shikha Wadhwani, MD, MS, a deep dive into the latest data from the the SGLT2 Inhibitor Meta-Analysis Cardio-Renal Trialists’ Consortium (SMART-C) at the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Kidney Week 2025 . Published in JAMA, the large-sc...

In this special edition episode of Kidney Compass: Navigating Clinical Trials , hosts Brendon Neuen, MBBS, PHD, and Shikha Wadhwani, MD, MS, are joined by Ricahrd Lafayette, MD, from the floor at the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) Kidney Week 2025 to discuss the late-breaking ORIGIN 3 results evaluating atacicept and how it adds to the totality of evidence supporting the use of the dual BAFF...

In this episode of Kidney Compass , host Brendon Neuen, MBBS, PhD, is joined by Tor Biering-Sørensen, MD, MPH, PhD, and Kristoffer Skaarup, MD, to discuss the design, execution, and implications of the NUDGE-CKD trial—a landmark pragmatic study aimed at improving guideline-based care in chronic kidney disease (CKD). NUDGE-CKD tested whether low-cost digital “nudges”—letters sent to patients and th...

In this special edition of Kidney Compass , Shikha Wadhwani sits down with Chee Kay Cheung, MBChB, PhD, of the University of Leicester, on the floor at the 62nd European Renal Association (ERA 2025) Congress to reflect on how far IgA nephropathy (IgAN) treatment has come—from what used to feel like “tumbleweeds” in nephrology to a pipeline packed with promising therapies. At the top of the convers...

In this special edition episode of Kidney Compass , hosts are joined by Vlado Perkovic, MBBS, PhD, dean and scientia professor of Medicine at UNSW Sydney, at the 62nd European Renal Association (ERA 2025) Congress . During the episode, Perkovic takes hosts Brendon Neuen, MBBS, PHD, and Shikha Wadhwani, MD, MS, on a deep dive into 1 of the meeting’s most anticipated releases— the VISIONARY trial ....

Welcome to Kidney Compass: Navigating Clinical Trials ! Simultaneous initiation of finerenone (Kerendia) and empagliflozin (Jardiance) in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and type 2 diabetes was well-tolerated and resulted in significantly greater reductions in urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR) than either agent alone, according to results from the CONFIDENCE trial presented at...

In this episode of Kidney Compass , hosts Brendon Neuen, MBBS, PhD, and Shikha Wadhwani, MD, MS, are joined by Dustin Little, MD, and Niels Jongs, PhD, to explore the use of hierarchical composite endpoints (HCEs) in nephrology clinical trials. The discussion highlights the limitations of traditional composite endpoints and the potential advantages of HCEs in improving statistical power, trial eff...

In this episode of Kidney Compass: Navigating Clinical Trials, hosts Brendon Neuen, MBBS, PhD, and Shikha Wadhwani, MD, MS, the director of Clinical trials in the Division of Nephrology and the vice chair of Clinical Research in the Department of Medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch, are joined by Laura Mariani, MD, MS, co-chair of the PARASOL Initiative associate professor in the Di...

In the latest episode of Kidney Compass: Navigating Clinical Trials , Hiddo Heerspink, PhD, PharmD, of the University of Groningen, joins the podcast after he presented the landmark SMART trial, which suggested the benefit of semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy) on chronic kidney disease (CKD) extend to patients without diabetes. Video Version During the episode, Heerspink shares the impetus behind the SM...

In the third and final on-site edition of Kidney Compass: Navigating Clinical Trials from the American Society of Nephrology’s Kidney Week 2024, Katherine Tuttle, MD, clinical professor of Medicine at University of Washington Medicine and executive director for Research at Providence Health Care, joins the program for a deep dive into new FLOW trial data at the meeting, the role of semaglutide (Oz...

Live from Kidney Week 2024! Hosts Neuen and Wadhwani are joined by Prof. Jonathan Barratt to discuss atacicept's 96-week data from ORIGIN OLE, which he presented as a late-breaker at the meeting. Video Version Here Results of the study indicate atacicept use was associated with sustained reductions across multiple endpoints of interest, including a 66% (SE, 2%) mean reduction in Gd-IgA1 levels, a...

Introducing Kidney Compass: Navigating Clinical Trials , your guide to the latest in clinical trials and relevant updates in the world of nephrology —created by Brendon Neuen, MBBS, PhD, and Shikha Wadhwani, MD, MS. Hosted on HCPLive , Kidney Compass was created to make the changing landscape of nephrology and clinical trials within the specialty easier to understand and navigate, with insights fr...