Massachusetts General Hospital

The Division of Nephrology's research programs are directed towards the elucidation of basic cellular mechanisms and the causes, management and potential therapies of kidney disease. Major research activities are carried out by investigators in sixteen basic research laboratories. Cell biological, molecular biological, biophysical, structural and genetic methodologies are used to understand specific aspects of epithelial, endothelial and leukocyte functions, membrane protein organization, membrane transport, organogenesis, cell adhesion and migration and cell growth and differentiation.

A major new basic research effort based in the Division of Nephrology is the Mass General Structural Biology Program aimed at determining the three-dimensional structure of molecules, in order to gain more insight into their function with the potential of developing antagonists that could be used therapeutically. A crystallography facility equipped with a state-of-the-art automated X-ray Imaging System (R-AXIS IV), X-ray Generator, Silicon Graphics computers and protein modeling software is staffed by three crystallographers and has been in full operation since March 1, 1998.

Active clinical and translational research programs in hypertension, preeclampsia, transplantation, dialysis and outcomes research complement and extend the basic science programs of the Division of Nephrology.

Research Faculty

• Brian D. Adair, PhD
• José Luis Alonso, PhD
• M. Amin Arnaout, MD
• Dennis A. Ausiello, MD
• Jodie Lynn Babitt, MD
• Sylvie Breton, PhD
• Ishir Bhan, MD, MPH
• Richard Bouley, PhD
• Dennis Brown, PhD
• Horatio Cantiello, DVM, PhD
• Peter Christmas, PhD
• Iain Drummond, PhD
• Louis Ercolani, MD
• Anna Greka, MD, PhD
• Garner Haupert, MD
• Xiangen Li, MD, PhD
• Herbert Lin, MD, PhD
• Hua Lu, MD, PhD
• Vladimir Marshansky, PhD
• Peter Mundel, MD
• John L. Niles, MD
• Narendra Pathak, PhD
• Teodor Paunescu, PhD
• Eugene Rhee, MD
• Sanja Sever, PhD
• Roy Soberman, MD
• David Scott, MD, PhD
• Ravi Thadhani, MD, MPH
• Nina Tolkoff-Rubin, MD
• Alfred Van Hoek, PhD
• Aleksandr Vasilyev, MD, PhD
• Winfred Williams, MD
• Steven Wu, MD
• Yin Xia, PhD
• Jian-Ping Xiong, PhD
• Jing-Wei Xiong, PhD

Ongoing Projects Stratisfy into the Following Themes:

Molecular Basis of Water, Acid, and Solute Transport (Investigators: Ausiello, Breton, Brown, Cantiello, Ercolani, Marshansky, Sever, van Hoek)

Renal Injury and Repair (Investigators: Adair, Arnaout, Christmas, Greka, Soberman, Lin)

Developmental Biology and Genetics (Investigators: Arnaout, Drummond, JW Xiong)

Glomerular Diseases (Investigators: Arnaout, Drummond, Greka, Sever, Thadhani)

Clinical Epidemiology (Investigators: Bhan, Thadhani, Wong)

Vascular Biology and Hypertension (Investigators: Arnaout, Haupert, Kang, JW Xiong)

Inflammation, Autoimmunity and Transplantation Biology (Investigators: Adair, Arnaout, Goes, Niles, Tolkoff-Rubin, Sachs, JP Xiong)

Genomics, Proteomics applied to diabetes mellitus and cancer (Investigators: Arnaout, Greka, Thadhani)

Receptor Dynamics (Investigators: Adair, Arnaout, JP Xiong)

Medical Informatics (Investigators: Bhan)

Specific Projects Include:

• Function, regulation and trafficking of aquaporin water channels, proton pumping ATPases, cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), sodium channels and the vasopressin V2 receptor
  
• Role of dynamin in vesicle trafficking
• Mechanisms of renal ischemic injury and repair
• Biology of TGFß and its receptors
• Role of the cytoskeleton in ion transport
• Chemical structure of hypothalamic Na-K-ATPase inhibitor
• Role of G proteins in membrane protein targeting in epithelium
• Monitoring receptor signaling by intramolecular FRET
• Molecular basis of leukocyte adhesion and its role in inflammation and injury
• Podocyte biology
• Transcription factors involved in myelomonocytic differentiation
• Crystal structure of adhesion and immune-related proteins
• Role of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies in autoimmune vasculitis
• Genetic analysis of kidney development in zebrafish
• Molecular and cell biology of autosomal polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD)
• Branching morphogenesis
• Proteomic and metabolomic analysis of diabetic nephropathy
• Role of fish oil in cardiovascular and renal disease
• Biology of the endogenous cardiac glycosides and hypertension
  
• Molecular basis of allograft rejection and tolerance
  

Research Unit

Phone: 617-726-5662
Fax: 617-726-5671