The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) is a public academic health science center in Galveston, Texas, United States. It is part of the University of Texas System. UTMB includes the oldest medical school in Texas, and has about 11,000 employees. As of April 2024, it had an endowment of $763 million.
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center is a public academic health science center in Dallas, Texas. With approximately 23,000 employees, more than 3,000 full-time faculty, and nearly 4 million outpatient visits per year, UT Southwestern is the largest medical school in the University of Texas System and the State of Texas.
Podocytes are cells in Bowman's capsule in the kidneys that wrap around capillaries of the glomerulus. Podocytes make up the epithelial lining of Bowman's capsule, the third layer through which filtration of blood takes place. Bowman's capsule filters the blood, retaining large molecules such as proteins while smaller molecules such as water, salts, and sugars are filtered as the first step in the formation of urine. Although various viscera have epithelial layers, the name visceral epithelial cells usually refers specifically to podocytes, which are specialized epithelial cells that reside in the visceral layer of the capsule.
The Urokinase receptor, also known as urokinase plasminogen activator surface receptor (uPAR) or CD87, is a protein encoded in humans by the PLAUR gene. It is a multidomain glycoprotein tethered to the cell membrane with a glycosylphosphotidylinositol (GPI) anchor. uPAR was originally identified as a saturable binding site for urokinase on the cell surface.
Marilyn Gist Farquhar was a pathologist and cellular biologist, Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Pathology, as well as the chair of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, who previously worked at Yale University from 1973 to 1990. She has won the E. B. Wilson Medal and the FASEB Excellence in Science Award. She was married to Nobel Laureate George Emil Palade from 1970 to his death in 2008. Her research focuses on control of intracellular membrane traffic and the molecular pathogenesis of auto immune kidney diseases. She has yielded a number of discoveries in basic biomedical research including: mechanisms of kidney disease, organization of functions that attach cells to one another, and mechanisms of secretions.
Soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) is a protein and the soluble form of uPAR. uPAR is expressed mainly on immune cells, endothelial cells, and smooth muscle cells. uPAR is a membrane-bound receptor for uPA, also known as urokinase and Vitronectin. The soluble version of uPAR, called suPAR, results from the cleavage and membrane-bound uPAR during inflammation or immune activation. The suPAR concentration is positively correlated to the activation level of the immune system. Therefore, suPAR is a marker of disease severity and aggressiveness and is associated with morbidity and mortality in several acute and chronic diseases. suPAR levels have been observed to increase with age. suPAR is present in plasma, urine, blood, serum, and cerebrospinal fluid.
Sharon A. Anderson is an American physician, educator, and researcher practicing in Portland, Oregon. She has contributed extensively to the study of the progression of chronic kidney disease. Her research has focused on diabetic nephropathy, polycystic kidney disease and the pathophysiology of the aging kidney. She was the first woman to serve as President of the American Society of Nephrology (ASN). She was the Chief of the Department of Medicine at the Veteran's Affairs Medical Center in Portland and is currently the Chair of the Department of Medicine at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU). She has been appointed to the National Institutes of Health Council of Councils. Her publications as author or co-author number greater than 150.
Jochen H.H. Ehrich is a German pediatric doctor in the fields of nephrology and tropical medicine, professor emeritus and Former Head of the Department of Paediatric Kidney, Liver and Metabolic Diseases at the Children’s Hospital, Hannover Medical School, in Hannover, Germany.
Vsevolod Tkachuk is a Soviet and Russian biochemist. Academician of RAMS and RAS. Dean of the Faculty of fundamental medicine of Lomonosov Moscow State University. Director of institute of regenerative medicine in Lomonosov Moscow State University and president of National regenerative medicine society.
Melissa Helen Little is an Australian scientist and academic, currently Theme Director of Cell Biology, heading up the Kidney Regeneration laboratory at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. She is also a Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, and Program Leader of Stem Cells Australia. In January 2022, she became CEO of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine reNEW, an international stem cell research center based at University of Copenhagen, and a collaboration between the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Australia, and Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands.
Donald Wayne Seldin was an American nephrologist. He worked at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and served as chair of the department of medicine for 36 years.
Minnie M. Sarwal is an adult and pediatric nephrologist, researcher of transplant immunology, and biotechnology entrepreneur in San Francisco. She has made significant contributions to the field of organ transplantation, including conducting the first successful complete steroid avoidance trial in the US and the first dosing safety trial for Rituximab in pediatric renal transplantation. She also spearheaded genomic and proteomics investigations into mechanisms of organ transplant injury and was the first to determine that there was substantive molecular heterogeneity in acute kidney transplant rejection. She has successfully commercialized blood testing for early diagnosis of both acute rejection and operational tolerance in kidney transplant patients, providing tools for proactive and predictive immunosuppression monitoring for transplant recipients.
Lisa Robinson is a Canadian clinician-scientist. She is a University of Toronto professor in the Department of Paediatrics and the Dean of the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, former Head of the Division of Nephrology at The Hospital for Sick Children, a Senior Scientist at the SickKids Research Institute, President American Pediatric Society 2022-2023, and the first-ever Chief Diversity officer for the Faculty of Medicine at University of Toronto.
Vanessa Grubbs is a nephrologist and a writer based in Oakland, California. She is an associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco. She works at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.
Susan E. Quaggin is a Canadian nephrologist. She is the Charles Horace Mayo Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Director of the Feinberg Cardiovascular Research Institute and chief of the Division of Nephrology.
Julie Alice Rich Ingelfinger is an American pediatric nephrologist. She is a deputy editor for the New England Journal of Medicine, professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and consulting pediatric nephrologist at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Paul E. Klotman is an American physician-scientist and academic administrator. He is the president, CEO and executive dean of the Baylor College of Medicine, a position he began on Sept. 1, 2010.
Morgan Erika Grams is an American nephrologist. She is the Co-Director of the Division of Precision Medicine, and the Susan and Morris Mark Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Population Health at NYU Langone Health.
Deidra C. Crews MD, ScM is an American nephrologist and epidemiologist. She is the Deputy Director of Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity and a Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Crews research focuses on social drivers of disparities in kidney disease and hypertension.
J. Charles Jennette is a physician, nephropathologist, academic, and author. He served as Kenneth M. Brinkhous Distinguished Professor and Chair of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, and Chief of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Services at UNC Hospitals from 1999 to 2019.
