Keith Peters is a doctor and clinical researcher whose research interests focus on the role of the immune system in kidney and vascular diseases. His key achievements include increasing our understanding of how a kidney disease called glomerulonephritis develops. He has also had a successful clinical career, becoming a consultant only 8 years after qualifying in medicine.

Through his research, Keith showed that an autoantibody — an antibody produced by the body against one of its own proteins — called nephritic factor was a principal cause of nephritis, an inflammation of the kidneys. His team then went on to show that suppressing the immune system was a valuable treatment for this and other autoimmune diseases.

As well as carrying out his own research, Keith leads the promotion of clinical research in the United Kingdom. He has helped to build academic research departments in a number of leading medical institutions and was the Director of the National Institute for Medical Research for several years.