APOL1 and chronic kidney disease: Apolipoprotein L1 is encoded by the APOL1 gene, which carries well-established risk variants associated with a wide spectrum of kidney-related diseases, including focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), HIV-associated nephropathy (HIVAN) and hypertension-associated end-stage renal disease (ESRD) (Kopp et al., 2011; Tzur et al., 2012; Ulasi et al., 2013).