Autoimmune Vasculitis and Kidney Disease Research Group

Vasculitis are a collection of diseases that cause inflammation of the blood vessels and can lead to serious organ damage. Many types of vasculitis are autoimmune diseases, including anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis, that particularly affects the small filters of the kidneys (glomeruli), leading to an inflammatory condition called glomerulonephritis.

White blood cells (leukocytes) are central to the development of severe forms of glomerular inflammation. Studies in humans, as well as relevant animal models, help define the critical molecular steps in the induction of these types of injury and provide new therapeutic targets for better and less toxic therapies.

In anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) associated vasculitis autoantibodies and immune cells cause inflammation of small blood vessels, especially in the kidney and the respiratory tract. Normally, antibodies are produced by white blood cells to help fight infection, but in ANCA associated vasculitis, autoantibodies are formed which attack one's own cells or tissues; specifically white blood cells called neutrophils are activated by these antibodies (ANCA) and lodge in vulnerable small blood vessels where they cause inflammation and tissue injury.

Vasculitis research at Monash

The Autoimmune Vasculitis and Kidney Disease Research Group is working to better understand the mechanism of disease in ANCA-associated vasculitis in order to define specific, less toxic therapies for this disease. Finding targeted treatments that produce fewer side-effects and greater quality of life is a key aspect of our work.

We have three streams of research:

Defining the fundamental reasons why vasculitis occurs
Working on new treatments and a better use of biomarkers of disease give the right treatments for the right length of time
Studying clinical aspects of disease and building up the ANZ Vasculitis Registry

The Monash Health Vasculitis Clinic

The Monash Health Vasculitis Clinic is a specialist and multidisciplinary clinic dedicated to better care of people with vasculitis. It is a collaboration between renal (kidney) medicine and rheumatology and led by nephrologist and physician-scientists Professor Richard Kitching and Associated Professor Jessica Ryan, from the Monash Health Department of Nephrology, and the Centre for Inflammatory Diseases (CID) in the School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health.

ANZVASC

The Australia and New Zealand Vasculitis Society (ANZVASC) was founded by Professor Kitching and his colleagues in Clinical Immunology, Nephrology and Rheumatology. It has more than 150 members, In 2026 it ran the highly successful 22^nd International Vasculitis Workshop in Melbourne.

Our research partner

Vasculitis Australia

Our aims

Our program works in vasculitis to

better understand why and how ANCA-associated vasculitis occurs
use novel methods to define better vasculitis treatments
discover better ways of predicting active disease and relapse
study important clinical features of disease using patient cohorts
understand the impact that ANCA-associated vasculitis has on people living with vasculitis
lead the national vasculitis registry, the ANZVASC Quality and Disease Registry

More about vasculitis View

ANCA-associated vasculitis is an autoimmune inflammation of small blood vessels, can result in serious kidney and other tissue and organ damage. Current treatments suppress protective elements of the immune system, leading to significant side effects. However, clinicians do not have the information to know when to stop treatment, and patients want better new treatments with fewer side effects.

Who does it affect?

ANCA-associated vasculitis in Australia has a similar incidence to MS; 1/50,000 people. It is most common in people aged 65-74 years. Genetic and environmental factors can both play a role in the development of this disease. Without treatment, 85 per cent of patients with vasculitis currently die within five years. Even with treatment, kidney failure and other organ damage can occur.

What are the symptoms?

ANCA vasculitis varies in severity and may result in inflammation in a number of organ systems. Fever, joint aches, skin rash, and fatigue are common symptoms. There may also be involvement of the eyes, sinuses, gastrointestinal tract and nervous system. Bleeding into the lungs, called pulmonary haemorrhage, and kidney involvement, called ANCA associated glomerulonephritis, are the most severe manifestations and may be life threatening.

Treatment of vasculitis

The exact treatment of vasculitis depends on its severity and the organ system involved. Left untreated, severe vasculitis results in very poor outcomes. Current treatment options for severe vasculitis are medications that suppress the immune system like glucocorticoid (steroids), and rituximab cyclophosphamide, which supress the immune system and therefore aim to improve the autoimmune inflammation. However, these medications are non-specific and can associated with side effects, most prominently an increased risk of infection and the effects of steroids on other parts of the body.

Vasculitis resources

For more information we recommend these resources:

Australian and New Zealand Vasculitis Society (ANZVASC)
ANCA-associated vasculitis (Nature Reviews Disease Primers)
Vasculitis Foundation
Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and allergy (ASCIA)

Meet the team View

Research interests View

This systemic disease often targets the kidney causing severe glomerulonephritis, but current treatments are sub-optimal Recent data convincingly confirms this is an autoimmune disease. Clinical and experimental studies of the group are establishing new ways by which the kidneys are attacked, as well as defining parts of the disease-initiating autoantigen that can be targeted to modify disease. This knowledge will be focussed on designing novel vaccination strategies to treat disease in humans.
Our program works in vasculitis to
1. better understand why and how ANCA-associated vasculitis occurs
2. use novel methods to define better vasculitis treatments
3. discover better ways of predicting active disease and relapse
4. study important clinical features of disease using patient cohorts
5. understand the impact that ANCA-associated vasculitis has on people living with vasculitis
6. lead the national vasculitis registry, the ANZVASC Quality and Disease Registry
Glomerulonephritis (GN) is not a single disease, but results from immune related damage to the glomerular microcirculation, usually a raction to self or foreign proteins (antigen). Crescentic GN, a focus of our research, is named because of the characteristic accumulation of cells in the shape of a crescent. It is caused by a strong and intense immune response, and characterises the most severe forms of GN, which also have the worst health outcomes. Several different diseases cause crescentic GN, the most common being small vessel vasculitis resulting from autoimmunity to neutrophil granules including myeloperoxidase and proteinase-3.

Clinical Sciences at Monash Health

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