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Dr Matthew Graham-Brown is a kidney specialist with a particular interest in the cardiovascular disease in patients with kidney disease. He has a broad research program that includes:

• Experimental work exploring the molecular links between muscle wasting disease and cardiovascular disease in patients with kidney disease, using proteomics and advanced cardiac magnetic imaging
• Assessing the effects of exercise, lifestyle and self-management interventions on cardiovascular disease and physical function in patients with kidney disease through clinical trials
• Developing and testing digital health interventions to support self-management behaviours and health literacy for patients with kidney disease (My Kidneys & Me)
• Understanding how implementation science can support the uptake integration of evidence-based practices into routine clinical care systems for patients with kidney disease in primary and secondary care

Dr Graham-Brown is the group lead for the Leicester Kidney Lifestyle Team and is director of the theme for implementation in the Leicester Partnership for Kidney Health Research. He co-Chairs the National clinical study group for CardioRenal Disease and is a member of the National UK Kidney Research Consortium. He is research impact and knowledge exchange lead for the department of cardiovascular sciences

Top 10 papers last 5 years

1. Agathangelou G, Graham-Brown M, McMahon AC, Xydopoulos G, Gofman L, Jaffe J. Economic Evaluation of Population-Level Chronic Kidney Disease Interventions in the UK National Health Service. J Health Econ Outcomes Res. 2025 Apr 30;12(1):184-190. doi: 10.36469/001c.134075. PMID: 40321844; PMCID: PMC12047453.
2. Lightfoot CJ, Wilkinson TJ, Sohansoha GK, Gillies CL, Vadaszy N, Ford EC, Davies MJ, Yates T, Smith AC, Graham-Brown MPM; SMILE-K collaborators. The effects of a digital health intervention on patient activation in chronic kidney disease. NPJ Digit Med. 2024 Nov 12;7(1):318. doi: 10.1038/s41746-024-01296-1. PMID: 39533053; PMCID: PMC11558007.
3. Greenwood SA, Young HML, …. Graham-Brown MPM, … Macdonald JH. Evaluating the effect of a digital health intervention to enhance physical activity in people with chronic kidney disease (Kidney BEAM): a multicentre, randomised controlled trial in the UK. Lancet Digit Health. 2024 Jan;6(1):e23-e32. doi: 10.1016/S2589-7500(23)00204-2. Epub 2023 Nov 14. PMID: 37968170.
4. Lightfoot CJ, Wilkinson TJ, Billany RE, Sohansoha GK, Vadaszy N, Ford EC, Davies MJ, Yates T, Smith AC, Graham-Brown MPM. Use, Usability, and Experience Testing of a Digital Health Intervention to Support Chronic Kidney Disease Self-Management: Mixed Methods Study. J Med Internet Res. 2025 Jun 19;27:e75845. doi: 10.2196/75845. PMID: 40537087; PMCID: PMC12226781.
5. Major RW, Lakhani N, …. Graham-Brown MP, …. Burton JO. Integrated primary and secondary care optimizes the management of people with CKD-the LUCID project. Clin Kidney J. 2025 Feb 12;18(4):sfaf049. doi: 10.1093/ckj/sfaf049. PMID: 40207101; PMCID: PMC11980979.
6. Baker LA, March DS, …. Graham-Brown MPM, …. Burton JO. Clinical practice guideline exercise and lifestyle in chronic kidney disease. BMC Nephrol. 2022 Feb 22;23(1):75. doi: 10.1186/s12882-021-02618-1. PMID: 35193515; PMCID: PMC8862368.
7. Carr EJ, Wu M, …. Graham-Brown MP, …. Beale R. Omicron neutralising antibodies after COVID-19 vaccination in haemodialysis patients. Lancet. 2022 Feb 26;399(10327):800-802. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(22)00104-0. Epub 2022 Jan 20. PMID: 35065703; PMCID: PMC8776276.
8. Carr EJ, Wu M, …. Graham-Brown MP, …. Beale R. Neutralising antibodies after COVID-19 vaccination in UK haemodialysis patients. Lancet. 2021 Sep 18;398(10305):1038-1041. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01854-7. Epub 2021 Aug 13. Erratum in: Lancet. 2021 Sep 18;398(10305):1042. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01890-0. PMID: 34391504; PMCID: PMC8360704.
9. Graham-Brown MPM, March DS, Young R, Highton PJ, Young HML, Churchward DR, Dungey M, Stensel DJ, Bishop NC, Brunskill NJ, Smith AC, McCann GP, McConnachie A, Burton JO. A randomized controlled trial to investigate the effects of intra-dialytic cycling on left ventricular mass. Kidney Int. 2021 Jun;99(6):1478-1486. doi: 10.1016/j.kint.2021.02.027. Epub 2021 Apr 8. PMID: 34023029.
10. March DS, Hurt AW, …. Graham-Brown MPM, Cooper NJ, Burton JO. A Cost-Effective Analysis of the CYCLE-HD Randomized Controlled Trial. Kidney Int Rep. 2021 Apr 8;6(6):1548-1557. doi: 10.1016/j.ekir.2021.02.036. PMID: 34169195; PMCID: PMC8207470.

Dr Graham-Brown’s research focuses on how to support the implementation of evidence-based therapies in routine clinical care, including pharmacotherapies and lifestyle interventions. His work has informed national policies and guidelines, particularly relating to provision of exercise and lifestyle rehabilitation for patients with kidney disease in the 2021 UK Kidney Association clinical practice guideline for exercise and lifestyle in chronic kidney disease and the 2024 NHS England renal services transformation program.

Dr Graham-Brown is Chief Investigator on mulitple externally funded research grants, with funding from Kidney Research UK and the British Heart Foundation. Most recently he was awarded a £4 million program grant from the Stoneygate Trust.

Dr Graham-Brown has published over 120 peer-revied articles, over 80 of which have been published in the last 5 years. Current H-index is 32 with a i10-index of 66 and >6000 citations (as of July 2025).

Dr Graham-Brown has an excellent track-record in supervising and developing junior researchers. He has been the principal supervisor of four intercalating Master’s students, all of whom achieved Distinctions. He has supervised two Doctoral students to completion and currently has four PhD students. He has supervised three foundation program trainees and one NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow.

I teach on undergraduate and post graduate courses, including:

• MB7058_SEM1/LEC9/01 - Fundamentals of CardioRenal Physiology and Pharmacology
• BS3082_SEM1/LEC14/01 - Cardiovascular and Renal Precision Medicine
• BS0012_SEM1/LEC2/01 – Fundamentals of cardiovascular disease
• I supervise undergraduate biological science project students
• I am co-lead for renal medicine at the University Hospitals of Leicester

• McCarthy Prize, Warwick Medical School, 2009
• Owen-Wade Prize, West Midlands Physicians Association, 2012
• Finalist, Medipex NHS Innovation Awards, Secondary Care, Leeds; ‘Overnight haemodialysis to improve patient experience and clinical outcomes’, 2015
• ASN research travel award, Royal Society of Medicine, 2016
• Royal College of Physicians, Future Hospitals Programme; ‘In-centre nocturnal haemodialysis programme’, 2017
• ASN research travel award, Royal Society of Medicine, 2017
• UK Renal Association Raine Award, UK Kidney Association, 2020
• Turner-Warwick Lecturer, Royal College of Physicians, 2020
• Research Excellence award, UoL (CIRG), 2021

Student Prizes (1^st supervisor)

• Best poster, Transplantoux (international conference), Billany 2024
• Best poster, UK Kidney Week, Billany, 2024
• Wolfson Scholarship, Ridller, 2024
• Best Analytical project, Biological Sciences BSc course, Thopte, 2021
• Renal Association SpR Club best medical student abstract, Poli, 2020
• Best abstract, Transplantoux (international conference), Billany 2020
• Wolfson Scholarship, Poli, 2019
• Kidney Research UK student research scholarship, Poli, 2019
• Wolfson Scholarship, Adenwalla, 2017
• Kidney Research UK student research scholarship, Adenwalla, 2017
• BMA student research award, Runner-up, Ardenwalla, 2017
• British and Irish Hypertension Society young investigator finalist, Adenwalla, 2017

• BSc (Hons), Biological Sciences (2:1), University of Birmingham, 2005
• (with intercalated year in France)
• MBChB (Hons), University of Warwick, 2009
• MRCP (UK), Royal College of Physicians London ,2012
• MRes (Distinction), Applied Health research, Â鶹ÊÓƵ, 2016
• Doctor of Philosophy, PhD (Loughborough University), 2018
• MRCP (Renal), Royal College of Physicians London, 2019
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, 2022