NEW YORK, Oct. 14, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Renalytix AI plc (AIM: RENX), a developer of artificial intelligence-enabled clinical diagnostics for kidney disease, announced today the appointment of leading kidney investigator and clinician Dr. Chirag Parikh to the Renalytix board.

Dr. Parikh is the Director of the Division of Nephrology and the Ronald Peterson Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Parikh received his medical degree from Seth G.S. Medical College and KEM Hospital in Mumbai, India and subsequently completed his internal medicine residency at the Nassau University Medical Center and SUNY at Stony Brook in New York, followed by his fellowship in Nephrology and Hypertension and UNOS Transplant Certification at the University of Colorado. While completing his fellowship, he also earned a doctorate in Clinical Investigation. Before joining Johns Hopkins, he was faculty at the Yale School of Medicine for over a decade and also directed the Program of Applied Translational Research. He was also promoted to Professor of Medicine and Investigative Medicine at Yale, and Professor of Medicine at the Clinical Epidemiology Research Center in the VA Connecticut Health Care System.

Dr. Parikh has several active NIH grants and has published over 250 original articles, which have been cited over 35,000 times in literature. Dr. Parikh's research focuses on the translation and validation of novel biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of acute kidney injury. Progress in kidney diseases has been hamstrung by significant heterogeneity within the current disease definitions, which are largely based on serum creatinine. Dr. Parikh's research has addressed this critical challenge by developing biomarkers of renal tubular injury, repair, and inflammation to dissect this heterogeneity. He has assembled multicenter longitudinal prospective cohorts for translational research studies across several clinical settings of acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease for the efficient translation of novel biomarkers.

Dr. Parikh's studies have refined the clinical definition in perioperative acute kidney injury and hepatorenal syndrome, developed strategies to reduce kidney discard in deceased donor transplantation, and advanced regulatory approvals of kidney injury biomarkers. He has also developed biomarkers to identify rapid progressors of early diabetic kidney disease before derangements in serum creatinine. Dr. Parikh's research goal is to translate our understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms into clinical practice and improve the outcomes in patients with kidney disease.

Dr. Parikh has also been the recipient of numerous honors, including the 2017 Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Nephrology, in recognition of his ability to translate findings in the laboratory to the advancement of clinical outcomes.

"We are honored to have one of the leading voices in kidney disease clinical practice and research join our board," said James McCullough, CEO of RenalytixAI. "Chirag will help ensure we maintain the highest standards of data driven development for the KidneyIntelX program."

About Kidney Disease 
Kidney disease is now recognized as a public health epidemic affecting over 850 million people globally. In the United States alone, over 40 million people are classified as having chronic kidney disease, with nearly 50 percent of individuals with advanced (Stage IV) disease unaware of the severity of their reduced kidney function. As a result, many patients progress to kidney failure in an unplanned manner, ending up having dialysis in the emergency room without ever seeing a clinical specialist, such as a nephrologist. Every day 13 patients die in the United States while waiting for a kidney transplant.

About RenalytixAI
RenalytixAI is a developer of artificial intelligence-enabled clinical diagnostic solutions for kidney disease, one of the most common and costly chronic medical conditions globally. The Company's solutions are being designed to make significant improvements in kidney disease diagnosis and prognosis, clinical care, patient stratification for drug clinical trials, and drug target discovery. For more information, visit renalytixai.com.

SOURCE RenalytixAI