Research

RESEARCH: Nephrology

• Highlight: Active NIH Awards
• Highlight: Clinical Trials
• Highlight: New Discoveries

The Division of Nephrology and the Center for Immunity, Inflammation and Regenerative Medicine (CIIR), are at the forefront of basic and translational research in kidney disease, immunity, autoimmunity, inflammation and regenerative medicine. Together, they have generated more than $20 million in research and training awards over the last five years. The CIIR, established in 2007, facilitates the transition of immunological concepts underlying human disease to clinical trials; research labs for both the division and the CIIR are housed in approximately 9,000 square feet of renovated, state-of-the-art space in Jordan Hall. The Center serves as an important training ground for undergraduate, graduate, and medical students, and postdoctoral fellows and visiting scientists in nephrology and allied fields. The division has internationally recognized research programs in acute kidney injury, Goodpasture’s syndrome, genetics of hypertension, pathogenesis of lupus nephritis, biology of natural killer T cells, dendritic cells and macrophages, and immunolobiology of transplantation. Biostatistical support for division research is provided in part by Jennie Ma, PhD, who has a joint appointment in Nephrology and the Department of Public Health Sciences.

Division and CIIR faculty have a total of 17 active NIH grants, including ten R01 (research) awards; three R21 (exploratory/developmental) research awards; two career development (“K”) awards; a T32 training grant, renewed until 2016; and a U19 (cooperative agreement) research program award. With the shrinking of NIH dollars, younger faculty member have to work harder than ever to secure research support, so it is particularly noteworthy that assistant professors Amandeep Bajwa and Gilbert Kinsey were both able to obtain NIH career development awards.

More Highlights:

• Harini Bagavant: received one-year grant from National Kidney Foundation to study pathogenesis of lupus (7/12-6/13)
• Umesh Deshmukh: completed second of two-year NIH R21 (exploratory research) award to study “Innate immunity activation in pathogenesis of Sjogren’s syndrome” (5R21DE019883-02, 5/10-4/12)
• Shu Man Fu: received $195K grant from the Alliance for Lupus Research to study “Progressions and biomarkers of proliferative lupus nephritis” (began 2/13)
• Mark Okusa: renewed NIH grant on “Leukocyte trafficking in acute renal failure,” now in its tenth year, for additional four-year period (9/12-8/16)
• Sundararaman Swaminathan received a Pilot and Feasibility Grant from UVA entitled. Role of Myeloid Osteogenic Cells in Vascular Calcification of End Stage Renal Disease (2013-2014)