Congratulations to the Sims-Lucas Laboratory on their new AKI study in the January 2024 edition of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. The study was selected for the edition's cover and outlines the lab's work on the potential of dicarboxylic acids (DCAs), particularly octanedioic acid (DC8), in preventing acute kidney injury.
Dr. Porter has identified novel roles for proteins that regulate the unfolded protein response in the pathogenesis and treatment of AKI. Specifically, Dr. Porter’s research involves the study of glucose-regulated protein 170 (GRP-170), a molecular chaperone that functions to regulate protein folding in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Dr. Porter is examining GRP-170’s role in the cells of nephrons.
The main areas covered in the review include DGF risk factors in transplant patients and how these may influence graft survival and longevity, where the science currently is with animal models recapitulating DGF, the current evidence base for treatment strategies, and the state of therapeutic development. Contributing to the paper were postdoctoral associate Anne C. S. Barbosa, BPharm, PhD; nephrology fellow Lillian G. Mauroner, MD, kidney transplant medical director Juhi Kumar, MD, and division research faculty Sunder Sims-Lucas, MD.
A gene called Myc that is among the most important drivers of cancer in both mice and humans also plays a newly discovered crucial role in aging, according to a new Cell Reports study by researchers at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Division faculty Rannar Airik, PhD, and Merlin Airik, PhD.
Division chief Jacqueline Ho, MD, MSc, is one of several co-investigators in a transdisciplinary NIH-funded grant being led by Alison Sanders, PhD, from the University of Pittsburgh Department of Environmental and Occupational Health. The study seeks to determine if pregnant mothers’ environmental exposure to toxic metals impacts kidney development in their babies, setting the stage for a problem that doesn’t become apparent until the baby is an adult.
How does the human spirit and spirituality fit into the world of pediatric nephrology and patient care? Find out in a new review article published in Frontiers in Pediatrics and co-authored by our clinical director, Michael L. Moritz, MD, FASN.
Read Dr. Moritz's comments on this important new study for pediatric nephrologists and critical care medicine physicians published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine Evidence.
Katherine Kurzinski, MD, former division fellow and now assistant professor of Pediatrics published a study in April 2023 in Pediatric Nephrology on trends and markers for hyperkalemia in CKD.
Aidan W. Porter, MD, is the lead author of a recent review article on the relationship between acute kidney injury and endoplasmic reticulum stress.
Dana Y. Fuhrman, DO, MS, led the new study designed to help improve CKRT practices in pediatric patients.
Rannar Airik, PhD, and colleagues uncovered the role that the FAN1 protein plays in the kidney tubular epithelial cells during kidney repair and regeneration after injury.
Principal investigator Sunder Sims-Lucas, PhD, is leading a multidisciplinary team of researchers to study the effectiveness of a novel, patented version of dicarboxylic acid 8 (DC8), called Tri-DC8, to prevent or treat acute kidney injury (AKI). The project was recently funded by a 2022 Pitt Innovation Challenge grant.
Cassandra Formeck, MD, MS, led the study published in Kidney360 that explored the risk for de novo infection, including sepsis, in pediatric ICU patients who experience an acute kidney injury while hospitalized.
A multidisciplinary team of researchers from UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh was awarded a 2022 Pitt Innovation Challenge grant.
UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh is recognized as one of the top pediatric hospitals in the country, earning the #8 position on the 2023-24 U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll of America’s Best Children’s Hospitals. 
