The winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine were revealed today, shared by three Americans: Carol Greider, Elisabeth Blackburn, and Jack Szostak, the latter of whom works at my home institution of Massachusetts General Hospital. The award…
The discovery of aquaporins–the protein family of water channels which regulate water transport in the kidney and many other tissues–was considered significant enough to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for Peter Agre in 2003. The aquaporins…
Mutations in the CFTR gene are responsible for cystic fibrosis. CFTR encodes a chloride transporter which in addition to its being expressed in the lungs and pancreas, is also found in the kidney. As I have blogged about previously,…
Wilms Tumor–named after the German surgeon/pathologist Max Wilms (pictured at left)–is an embryonal tumor that derives from developing kidney tissue. Wilms was the first to postulate that tumors may arise from precursor cells which arise during development, and…
Two very interesting web sites for those involved in the study of mouse as a model organism for the study of kidney disease and kidney development: The first is the Genitourinary Development Molecular Anatomy Project (GUDMAP) site, which…
For the research component of my Nephrology fellowship, I’ve chosen an unorthodox route: I am using the zebrafish as a model organism for the study of kidney disease. The zebrafish system has a number of advantages. First,…
Heard a great talk today from the 2007 recipient of the Homer Smith Award & editor of Kidney International: Qais Al-Awqati of Columbia. The full details of much of the talk can be found in this JASN article…
As we all know, erythropoietin is secreted predominantly by the kidney (85% from the kidney, 15% from the liver) in response to hypoxia and its function is to stimulate erythropoiesis in the bone marrow. What is the receptor…
The most recent issue of NephSAP (“Fluids, Electrolytes, and Acid-Base Disturbances”) features a mini-review describing the role of the kinase SGK1 in the regulation of various nephrology-related disorders, such as salt-sensitive hypertension, metabolic syndrome, and renal fibrosis. How…
MicroRNAs: one of the sexiest topics in the science community these days! Pick up a copy of Science, Nature, or Cell and you can usually find something to do with microRNAs within. What do these have to do…
