Polycystic liver disease (PLD) is a genetic condition where fluid-filled cysts gradually form and expand throughout the liver. As the liver enlarges, patients experience pain, infection and cyst rupture leading to further clinical complications and severely impacting quality of life. Women make up 80% of PLD patients and often have more severe disease than men; this has been linked to female hormones, including estrogen, that promote cyst growth. As a result, PLD patients experience substantial treatment inequality based on the relative rarity of this disease. There are no PLD research programmes in Scotland (or the UK more widely).

This award will provide unique training at the interface between basic and clinical research, offering hands-on training in biomarker discovery and prioritisation, providing training on how pipelines are established and function in practice, enabling development of the practical skills needed for a strong ERC proposal on sex differences in PLD. This collaboration will also further develop long-term links, supporting future translational research and novel therapeutic strategies.