The invention discloses reagent sets and gene signatures for predicting onset of renal tubule injury in a subject. The invention also provides a necessary set of 186 genes useful for generating signatures of varying size and performance capable of predicting onset of renal tubule injury. The invention also provides methods, apparatuses and reagents useful for predicting future renal tubule injury based on expression levels of genes in the signatures. In one particular embodiment the invention provides a method for predict whether a compound will induce renal tubule injury using gene expression data from sub-acute treatments.