Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
Professor A Richard Kitching is a nephrologist physician-scientist in the Centre for Inflammatory Diseases within the Department of Medicine, School of Clinical Sciences. He is a tenured academic at Monash University currently funded by an NHMRC Investigator Grant. He heads a group working on autoimmune vasculitis, with a particular interest on how the immune system injures the kidney. His clinical practice in Nephrology and Vasculitis helps define important questions in the causes of immune kidney disease and how they can be better treated.
His research focuses on autoimmune vasculitis, conditions that often cause rapidly progressive inflammatory kidney disease (rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis). By understanding the involvement of leukocytes (white blood cells) in glomerulonephritis, an important cause of kidney disease, we will be able to develop and use more targeted and effective treatments.
His research program has established the role of pathogenic and protective cellular immunity in rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis, and defined the key parts of molecules (autoantigens) that cause disease so that antigen specific treatments are now possible.
The causes of severe rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis, important conditions that result in end stage kidney disease, are unclear. These diseases are usually due to autoimmune vasculitis, but unfortunately, current treatments are often toxic and ineffective. Without a better understanding of how disease occurs, it will be difficult to develop new treatments. To use more specific biological and cellular therapies, we need to understand the critical steps in how the disease develops.
Professor Kitching's research has been funded by NHMRC Project Grants, an NHMRC grant within a European Union Horizon 20/20 Consortium and an NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence. His publications include papers in Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Reviews Disease Primers, Nature Reviews Immunology, PNAS USA, The Journal of Clinical Investigation, The Journal of Experimental Medicine, Nature Communications, Blood, Nature Reviews Nephrology, The Journal of the American Society of Nephrology and Kidney International.
He serves on the Editorial Boards of J Am Soc Nephrol, Kidney International, Clin J Am Soc Nephrol, and Internal and Emergency Medicine. He has been an Associate Editor for the J Am Soc Nephrology (2022-2023).
In 2018 he and colleagues established the ANZ Vasculitis Society (ANZVASC, https://www.anzvasculitis.org/) to improve clinical care and education in vasculitis, and to assist in translating research discoveries into clinical practice. He is the inagural chair of this society. In 2023 he established the ANZ Vasculitis Quality and Disease Registry.
For publications, please see
Clinical activities
Richard Kitching works at Monash Health as a Nephrologist and Paediatric Nephrologist.
In Adult Nephrology his work is focussed on immune kidney conditions: glomerulonephrtis, vasculitis, lupus nephrits and transplantation. He leads the reserach intensive Monash Vasculitis Clinic,
In Paediatric Nephrology he works with his colleagues across the range of kidney conditions that affect children.
All his work is in the public system - he does not run a private practice.
Consulting
Professor Kitching is available for consulting in the research areas of vasculitis, glomerulonephritis, and other forms of immune kidney disease.
Community service
In 2018 he and colleagues in Australia and New Zealand from the disciplines of Clinical Immunology, Nephrology and Rheumatology founded the ANZ Vasculitis Society (ANZVASC) a patient facing multidisciplinary professional society to improve vasculitis education, research and care in Australia and New Zealand.
He is the inaugural Chair of the Board of this charity.
Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Education/Academic qualification
Medicine, PhD, The role of Th1 responses in the induction of crescentic glomerulonephritis, MONASH UNIVERSITY
14 Jul 1995 → 28 Jul 1999
Award Date: 28 Jul 1999
Medicine, MB ChB (with distinction), University of Otago
Award Date: 11 Dec 1987
External positions
Chair, Board of Directors, Australia and New Zealand Vasculitis Society
Nephrologist, Monash Health
Paediatric Nephrologist, Monash Health
Research area keywords
- Glomerulonephritis
- Autoimmune Diseases
- T cells
- Personalised Immunology
- Immunoregulation
- Vasculitis
- Regulatory T cells
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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Splice switching oligonucleotides for the treatment of chronic kidney disease
Thomas, M. (Primary Chief Investigator (PCI)), Wilton, S. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Wraight, C. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Pickering, R. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Cooper, M. (Associate Investigator (AI)), Coughlan, M. (Associate Investigator (AI)), Tesch, G. (Associate Investigator (AI)), Kitching, R. (Associate Investigator (AI)) & Jupp, B. (Associate Investigator (AI))
1/01/23 → 31/12/25
Project: Research
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Better treatments for autoimmune kidney disease and vasculitis
Kitching, R. (Primary Chief Investigator (PCI))
1/01/22 → 31/12/26
Project: Research
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Vasculitis Registry Establishment Proposal
Kitching, R. (Primary Chief Investigator (PCI))
14/08/20 → 30/11/20
Project: Research
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Defining key determinants of HLA mediated T cell tolerance and autoimmunity
Kitching, R. (Primary Chief Investigator (PCI)) & Reid, H. (Chief Investigator (CI))
1/01/19 → 31/12/22
Project: Research
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The pathogenesis of PR3-ANCA associated vasculitis
Schochet, I. & Kitching, R.
5/02/18 → 4/02/21
Project: Research
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Dominant protection from HLA-linked autoimmunity by antigen-specific regulatory T cells
Ooi, J. D., Petersen, J., Tan, Y. H., Huynh, M., Willett, Z. J., Ramarathinam, S. H., Eggenhuizen, P. J., Loh, K. L., Watson, K. A., Gan, P. Y., Alikhan, M. A., Dudek, N. L., Handel, A., Hudson, B. G., Fugger, L., Power, D. A., Holt, S. G., Coates, P. T., Gregersen, J. W. & Purcell, A. W. & 5 others, , 11 May 2017, In: Nature. 545, 7653, p. 243-247 5 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
166 Citations (Scopus) -
ANCA-associated vasculitis
Kitching, A. R., Anders, H. J., Basu, N., Brouwer, E., Gordon, J., Jayne, D. R., Kullman, J., Lyons, P. A., Merkel, P. A., Savage, C. O. S., Specks, U. & Kain, R., 27 Aug 2020, In: Nature Reviews Disease Primers. 6, 1, 27 p., 71.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review Article › Research › peer-review
603 Citations (Scopus) -
HLA and kidney disease: from associations to mechanisms
Robson, K. J., Ooi, J. D., Holdsworth, S. R., Rossjohn, J. & Kitching, A. R., 1 Oct 2018, In: Nature Reviews Nephrology. 14, 10, p. 636-655 20 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review Article › Research › peer-review
62 Citations (Scopus) -
A plasmid-encoded peptide from Staphylococcus aureus induces anti-myeloperoxidase nephritogenic autoimmunity
Ooi, J. D., Jiang, J.-H., Eggenhuizen, P. J., Chua, L. L., van Timmeren, M., Loh, K. L., O’Sullivan, K. M., Gan, P. Y., Zhong, Y., Tsyganov, K., Shochet, L. R., Ryan, J., Stegeman, C. A., Fugger, L., Reid, H. H., Rossjohn, J., Heeringa, P., Holdsworth, S. R., Peleg, A. Y. & Kitching, A. R., 29 Jul 2019, In: Nature Communications. 10, 1, 14 p., 3392.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open AccessFile46 Citations (Scopus) -
Burden of Infection-Related Hospitalization and the Impact of Multidisciplinary Care in ANCA-Associated Vasculitis: A Retrospective Cohort
Yeung, E. K., Kitching, A. R., Gingold, M., Polkinghorne, K. R. & Ryan, J., May 2025, In: International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases. 28, 5, 4 p., e70139.Research output: Contribution to journal › Letter › Research › peer-review