John T. Milliken Department of Medicine
According to the Organ Procurement & Transplantation Network (OPTN) transplant database, nearly 91,000 individuals are currently waiting for a kidney or kidney/pancreas transplant, with an average wait time in most clinics being 3-5 years. In addition, the annual mortality rate of those waiting for a kidney is about 5% and increases greatly in the older […]
WashU Nephrology fellow Zoey Levine, MD, and Professor of Medicine Anitha Vijayan, MD, FASN, discuss the option of prolonged intermittent kidney replacement therapy (PIKRT) in the management of patients with kidney failure in a review published in CJASN’s special series Critical Care Nephrology and Acute Kidney Injury (AKI). PIKRT is a hybrid form of […]
Albuminuria is the hallmark of nephrotic syndrome (NS), a leading cause of chronic kidney disease that affects 500 million people worldwide, but the molecular mechanism underlying albuminuria-induced kidney injury remains poorly defined. A recent study by researchers from Washington University School of Medicine have provided insight into a possible novel drug target to treat proteinuric […]
Research into cures for chronic kidney disease (CKD) has been severely hampered because of the difficulty in studying the highly specialized cells of the kidney, particularly the podocytes, outside their native microenvironment. However, a game-changing, novel culturing technique, developed through the collaboration of scientists from WashU Division of Nephrology and the McKelvey School of Engineering, […]
For almost 80 years, dialysis has been a lifesaving procedure for patients with kidney failure, yet problems such as low quality of life and the realization that patients will have to remain on dialysis for the rest of their lives have resulted in an increased interest in kidney transplantation. The number of available transplantable kidneys, […]
A new study by Leslie Gewin, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, WashU Nephrology, challenges the long-held assumption that renal tubular cell cycle progression is always beneficial in the context of renal injury. In their article, just published online in Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI) Insight, Dr. Gewin and colleagues detail how slowing cell cycle progression […]
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a slowly progressive, neurodegenerative disease, is a leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. The number of people with AMD is projected to increase from 196 million in 2020 to 288 million in 2040. While lifestyle factors, such as diet and smoking, are associated with the risk of advanced AMD, it is […]
WashU Nephrology researchers are part of a group of scientists who have used a new technique that significantly boosts detection and quantification of low-abundance molecular biomarkers in urine to study an underdiagnosed cause of kidney disease. Yeawon Kim, a member of the Y. Maggie Chen Lab, is first author of the study titled “Ultrabright Plasmonic-Fluor […]
Timothy Yau, MD, associate professor of medicine, Division of Nephrology, Washington University in St. Louis, co-authored an article for practicing physicians who want to pursue academia with a focus on education. The article “The Nephrology Clinician Educator: Pathway and Future” is featured in Advances in Chronic Kidney Diseases (ACKD, Vol 27, Issue 4, 323-319, Epub […]
Congratulations to two WashU Nephrology researchers for having their work highlighted on the covers of recent publications. This is the second such cover for each in two years! Meei-Hua Lin, PhD, a senior scientist in the Jeffrey Miner Laboratory, is first author of the article “Mammalian hemicentin 1 is assembled into tracks in the extracellular […]