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Biography
Maarten Taal graduated from the University of Cape Town Medical School, South Africa, in 1987. After completing his post-graduate training in internal medicine and nephrology at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, he joined the Laboratory of Kidney and Electrolyte Physiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, USA under the directorship of Barry M. Brenner, MD. His research focused on mechanisms underlying the progression of chronic kidney disease and earned him a Doctor of Medicine degree. He subsequently moved to the United Kingdom where he was appointed a Consultant Renal Physician at Derby City General Hospital in 2002 and Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham in 2011. He was appointed Professor of Medicine in the Division of Medical Sciences and Graduate Entry Medicine, University on Nottingham in April 2014.
Research Summary
Over the past five years I have been principal investigator of a large (n=1741), long-term (10 year) study investigating risk factors and outcomes in a cohort of predominantly older people with CKD… read more
Current Research
Over the past five years I have been principal investigator of a large (n=1741), long-term (10 year) study investigating risk factors and outcomes in a cohort of predominantly older people with CKD in Primary Care (The Renal Risk in Derby - RRID Study), involving collaboration with 32 General Practitioner surgeries. This study has already achieved seven publications in peer-reviewed journals and has formed the basis for 1 successful PhD thesis as well as components of three other theses. It was the single largest contributor to recruitment to CLRN portfolio studies in Derby in 2009. Long term outcomes (year 5 and year 10) are expected to produce important new data to inform risk prediction in CKD.
I have been successful in establishing a number of collaborations, both nationally and internationally. Investigators in Birmingham and Scotland have adopted the RRID protocol for similar studies to facilitate future collaboration. We have an active collaboration with The Binding Site Group Limited investigating the prognostic implications of serum and urine free light chains in CKD. A collaboration with Prof P.J.Roderick of the University of Southampton is investigating socio-economic aspects and health inequalities related to CKD. I am an active member of the UK Renal Research Collaborative CKD Clinical Study Group (CSG) and as such contributed to a successful bid to obtain funding from the Health Technology Assessment Programme (HTA) for a multicentre study to evaluate cystatin C as a marker of glomerular filtration. I am also part of group working across several CSGs to establish multicentre cohort studies for biomarker evaluation in CKD. I have been invited to coordinate one of 7 centres in a large randomized multicentre study (BARACK-D) investigating the potential benefits of spironolactone in CKD, led by Professor Richard Hobbs, Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, with HTA funding under consideration.
Past Research
I have a career-long interest in chronic kidney disease (CKD) encompassing the mechanisms whereby it progresses, its associated complications and impact on the health of particularly older people as well as interventions to slow CKD progression and abrogate the associated risks. Throughout my career I have actively sought to engage in research and have gained experience in a wide range of research methodologies including animal models of CKD, renal micropuncture, molecular biology techniques including RNA extraction and quantitative PCR, detailed clinical science, cohort studies and epidemiology.