Genetics and Multi-omics in Urological Oncology and Benign Kidney Disorders

Urological oncology has entered an era of molecular stratification, driven by tumor sequencing, immune profiling, and integrative multi-omics that illuminate heterogeneity, microenvironmental interactions, and therapy resistance. In parallel, benign kidney disorders are increasingly studied through systems biology, revealing how epithelial injury, inflammation, metabolism, and host–microbiome crosstalk converge to shape disease progression and recurrence. Despite this progress, cross-cohort reproducibility, standardized pipelines, and causal validation remain major barriers to clinical adoption. Longitudinal and multi-modal datasets are still limited, and mechanistic links between omics signatures and pathophysiology often require further experimental confirmation. This Topic will provide a dedicated platform for genetics- and multi–omics–focused urology research that connects molecular discovery to clinically meaningful endpoints, enabling a clearer path from mechanistic insight to diagnostic and therapeutic innovation.Urological cancers and benign kidney diseases collectively contribute to substantial morbidity, mortality, and healthcare utilization. While genetics and multi-omics technologies have accelerated discovery in urology, many findings remain descriptive, lack causal support, and fail to translate into robust biomarkers or actionable targets. This Research Topic aims to advance urological oncology, including kidney, bladder, prostate, and upper-tract urothelial cancers, while also highlighting mechanistic and translational insights in benign kidney disorders such as nephrolithiasis, tubulointerstitial injury, and fibrosis. We encourage submissions that integrate germline and somatic genomics with transcriptomic, epigenomic, proteomic, metabolomic, microbiome, and spatial/single-cell data to uncover disease mechanisms, refine molecular subtypes, predict clinical outcomes, and guide precision interventions. Priority will be given to studies with rigorous experimental design, reproducible analytics, independent validation, and—where feasible—functional perturbation to strengthen causal inference and translational relevance.We welcome Original Research, Methods, and Reviews on:• Urological cancer genomics (somatic alterations, tumor microenvironment, resistance，and else)• Germline genetics, polygenic risk, and causal inference approaches for urological traits• Multi-omics integration and network/pathway analyses across tumors and benign kidney diseases• Single-cell and spatial omics for tumor and kidney tissue biology• Urine/blood/tissue biomarker discovery with external validation• Functional validation (organoids, CRISPR/perturbation, animal models, pathway targeting)• Reproducible workflows, harmonization, and benchmarking of omics pipelines Topic editors: Zijian Zhou, Xuan Zhou, Zeping Gui Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/78032/genetics-and-multi-omics-in-urological-oncology-and-benign-kidney-disorders