Nephrologist Andreas Herrlich Elected to AAAS

Andreas Herrlich, MD, PhD, has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), one of the most prestigious honors in the scientific community.  Each year, the AAAS Council elects members whose “efforts on behalf of the advancement of science, or its applications, are scientifically or socially distinguished,” a distinction the organization, established in 1874, preserves with deliberate care.

Dr. Herrlich, Professor of Medicine, Cell Biology, and Physiology, and Director of Translational Medicine in the Division of Nephrology, is being honored for his contributions to the field of medicine, particularly for identifying mechanisms of interorgan communication during acute kidney injury.

“I am very grateful for this AAAS Fellow nomination. My recognition as an AAAS Fellow honors foremost the hard work numerous junior and senior scientists performed in my laboratory over the years. I share this award with all of them!” 

A physician‑scientist internationally recognized for his work on kidney injury, fibrosis, and interorgan communication, Herrlich’s laboratory investigates how signals from the injured kidney influence distant organs such as the heart, lungs, and brain – research that has provided important insights into the systemic impact of kidney disease. Learn more on the Herrlich Lab website.

Herrlich was also recently appointed Deputy Editor of Comprehensive Physiology, a newly launched peer‑reviewed journal focused on interorgan communication. His expertise in this area was further recognized when the German Science and Humanities Council invited him to serve as a scientific advisor in a national review process for prioritizing large‑scale research infrastructure projects.

In addition to his scientific accomplishments, Herrlich has contributed significantly to international scientific education. He has organized multiple EMBO‑FEBS lecture courses – including Molecular Mechanisms of Tissue Injury, Repair, and Fibrosis (2019) and Molecular Mechanisms of Interorgan Crosstalk in Health and Disease (2022, 2024) – held on the Greek island of Spetses. He also co‑organized the 2023 symposium “Molecular Mechanisms of Organismal Physiology in Health and Disease” in St. Louis, bringing together experts for in‑depth scientific exchange.

The 2025 class of AAAS Fellows, which includes class includes 449 scientists, engineers and innovators across 24 AAAS disciplinary Sections, will be celebrated at the AAAS Fellows Forum in Washington, D.C.

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