DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE

NEPHROLOGY RESEARCH

 

Major themes in the Nephrology and Hypertension research program include:

1. Hypertension, chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular outcomes
   The Division has provided major leadership for key NIH-sponsored multi-center trials, including the Antihypertensive and Lipid Lowering Treatment to Prevent Heart Attack (ALLHAT) (Wright and Rahman) , the African American Study of Kidney Disease and Hypertension (AASK) (Wright, Rahman and Smith), the Cohort Renal Insufficiency  Cohort (CRIC) (Rahman, Wright and Smith).
2. Immune monitoring of kidney transplant recipients
   A 5- year NIH contract providing preliminary data on the clinical utility of the ELISPOT assay for interferon as a surrogate for transplant outcomes (Hricik, PI) provided the basis for a U01 grant that is testing the validity of the ELISPOT and other noninvasive tests as predictors of rejection and other outcomes in kidney transplant recipients (Hricik, PI)
3. Pathophysiology of diabetic nephropathy
   Recent efforts have provided data on transcriptional profiling and functional  genomics in an animal model of diabetic nephropathy (Simonson, PI).  Pending studies will focus on the pathogenic basis for fibrosis in diabetic nephropathy.
4. Barriers to access to transplantation
   An NIH sponsored study designed to determine whether patient navigators can improve access of hemodialysis to kidney transplantation (Bodziak, Co Investigator)
5. Multi-center Clinical Trials
   These currently include a trial of Tolvaptan in polycystic kidney disease (Berger,  PI), Conversion of kidney transplant patients from calcineurin inhibitors to sirolimus (Augustine,  PI), Pharmacokinetics of once-daily tacrolimus (Bodziak, PI)