News and Announcements
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- 10.21.2023
Sophia Serrano, a Mexican/Puerto Rican American scholar from Chicago's West side, dedicated her summer to diligent work at the Thompson Lab within Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. As a returning SciHigh Scholar at Northwestern University's GoKIDNEY Center, she passionately delved into medical science. Sophia's determination and inquisitiveness guided her in exploring endomucin research, revealing how curiosity and dedication can unveil new horizons in STEM.
Hear her firsthand experience shared through her perspective.
- Northwestern University Awarded Nearly $5 Million NIH Grant to Revolutionize Kidney Research09.21.2023Northwestern has successfully secured a substantial grant of nearly $ 5 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to establish a cutting-edge center dedicated to kidney research. This funding will enable the department to create a center that will leverage innovations from the physical sciences to tackle pressing challenges in kidney research.
Tamara Isakova, MD Appointed as Interim Chief of Nephrology and Hypertension09.01.2023Join us in congratulating Dr. Tamara Isakova, MD, who has been appointed Interim Chief of Nephrology and Hypertension in the Department of Medicine. Her leadership extends beyond Northwestern, as she chairs the Theme Chair for the 2024 World Congress of Nephrology Program Committee and serves on various steering committees. With editorial roles in top nephrology journals, Dr. Isakova continues to make significant contributions to the medical community.Join us in welcoming Dr. Isakova to her new position!
07.27.2023At the September meetings of the American Heart Association (AHA) Hypertension Council, Dr. Daniel Batlle will deliver the 2023 Donald Seldin Lecture, an esteemed award presented by the Kidney and Cardiovascular Councils.
Learn more about this Hypertension Scientific Sessions award.
05.02.2023Susan Quaggin, MD, Director of NUGoKidney and FCVRRI was one of eight Northwestern University Faculty members recently elected to the American Academy of Arts & Science, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies.
Join us in congratulation her and the nearly 270 members elected in 2023 from academia, the arts, industry, policy, research, and science.
Learn more about this honor in the Northwestern Now article here.
- Take the Challenge04.17.2023
850 million people worldwide have kidney disease, but few know its dangers. Take the #850Challenge and raise awareness by walking 8.5K steps, cycling 85 miles, or completing 8.5 minutes of high-intensity training. Share your progress w/ us on Twitter and Instagram by using the hashtag (#850Challenge) and tagging us @NU_Nephrology.
02.15.2023As we reflect on the year and plan for the new year, NUGoKidney would like to express gratitude for your continued support and dedication to kidney health. We can't wait for you to see what we have in store for this year!To celebrate another incredible year, we are excited to share some of the exciting moments and achievements from this past year!
02.06.2023Northwestern nephrology recently welcomed two new faculty members. Join us in welcoming Pierre R. Blemur, Jr., MD and Amishi Desai, DO, to the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension.
02.02.2023Targeting VEGFR-3 in kidney lymphatics has been proposed as a method to treat kidney disease. However, expression of VEGFR-3 is not lymphatic-specific. Assistant Professor of Medicine (Nephrology and Hypertension) at Northwestern, Michael D Donnan, MD and team provide valuable information for therapeutic development targeting these pathways in recent AJP Renal publication.
02.02.2023While nephrology has reached many milestones in the past few decades,Susan Quaggin, MD, FASN, NUGoKidney Director and former POTASN, encouraged nephrologists to turn this moment into a movement. With 8 breakthroughs and 9 FDA approval in 2022, now is better time than any to join the revolution to end kidney disease by challenging lawmakers, policymakers and policies that threaten patients and the care nephrologists provide.
02.01.2023John Rogers, SM, PhD, executive director of Northwestern University's Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics, and Lorenzo Gallon, MD, medical director of the Translational Medicine program are working to treat kidney patients as early as possible and avoid the need for a biopsy by developing wearable technology to detect the earliest signs of kidney transplant rejection.Together they have developed an implantable, wireless sensor that attaches to the kidney and measures blood flow and temperature and through testing, have found that temperature—but not blood flow—provides an early warning about rejection.
01.31.2023NUGoKidney Director and former POTASN, Susan Quaggin, MD, FASN interviewed with thirty television and radio stations to help raise awareness of the thirty-seven million American's living with kidney disease. Focusing on kidney health, early intervention and prevention, Dr. Quaggin encourages everyone to get informed and emphasizes the importance of knowing whether you are at risk.
01.06.2022In 2021, we continued to support groundbreaking research and discoveries in kidney health through our core services and Pilot & Feasibility program. We continued to develop existing partnerships with the Northwestern Racial Equity and Community Partnership Grant and expanded programming with new collaborations with Chicago KUH Forward and Color of Medicine. We also welcomed our third cohort of SciHigh Summer Scholars and so much more!
12.22.2021SciHigh, NUGoKidney’s summer mentorship program for high school students, recently named Beatriz Sosa-Pineda, PhD, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Nephrology, as the new program director. The program aims to provide interactive educational opportunities and mentorship to foster learning, discovery, and wonder in a range of topics in science and medicine. The SciHigh Summer Program recently hosted its third cohort of scholars, which included 13 budding young scientists from high schools across Chicago.
11.02.2021Connect with our Kidney colleagues and community at the 2021 ASN Kidney week starting Nov.4th and running until Nov.7th. We are excited to have over 50 presenters, posters, and sessions showcasing the amazing work NUGoKidney and Northwestern researchers have spent countless hours on. Find a full list of NU Affiliated presenters here.
10.04.2021Chicago KUH FORWARD's new NIDDK-funded TL1 interdisciplinary training program isnow accepting applications for predoctoral and postdoctoral fellows in basic, translational, or clinical research in the fields of kidney, benign urologic, and benign hematologic diseases at one of the six Chicago KUH FORWARD partnering institutions: Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Loyola University, Northwestern University, Rush University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and University of Chicago. Apply for the Chicago KUH Fellowship today!
08.23.2021In an impressive and heartening poster showcase held on August 13th, we celebrated 13 remarkable budding young scientists and the conclusion of NUGoKidney’s 2021 SciHigh Summer Program, which provides students with mentorship, training, and hands-on experiences to build their skills and confidence in science and medicine.
This year’s hybrid program combined mentorship with in-person, hands-on experiences, and virtual interactive sessions led by experts in nephrology and other fields such as pediatrics, genetics, nanoscience, implementation science, and artificial intelligence to name a few. Check out a recap of our summer of science.
07.30.2021We are happy to announce the grants awarded from our recent call for proposals for our FY2022 NUGoKidney Pilot & Feasibility (P&F) Program. Of the many innovative, high-quality proposals we received, we were able to fund three new projects and renew one project for a second year, totaling nearly $150,000 in funds. Meet the awardees and learn about the funded projects.
07.28.2021The kidney has largely been overlooked as a target organ for nanoparticle‑mediated drug delivery. On July 14, 2021, participants explored nephrotherapeutics development using nanotechnologies with Evan Scott, PhD, NUGoKidney Therapeutic Design and Development Core co-director. Dr. Scott discussed his ongoing work developing rationally designed nanomaterials for controlled targeted therapeutic delivery and potential applications to kidney therapeutics. Pinelopi Kapistsinou, MD , Core co-director moderated the webinar. Watch the webinar video recording
Evan and his lab are working to collaborate with scientists of different disciplines on nano-therapeutics. Request a consultation to learn more about how you can use nanocarriers in your research.
07.09.2021Two-time Pilot and Feasibility awardee, Jennie J Lin, MD, MTR recently received the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) 2021 Carl W. Gottschalk Research Scholar Grant. The awarded project titled, Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress and Macrophage Function in APOL1 Nephropathy, studies how genetic variants modulate macrophage function at the intersection of kidney and cardiovascular disease. Learn more about Dr. Lin and her projects.
07.06.2021NUGoKidney is excited to welcome its third cohort of scholars into the SciHigh Summer Program. In this summer’s program, 13 students from local Chicago high schools will work with mentors from Northwestern and Loyola on kidney research while gaining exposure to topics and experts in other fields such as pediatrics, genetics, nanoscience, data science, and artificial intelligence. Along with building their fluency in scientific processes, students will participate in a series of professional skills development workshops on project management, time management, networking, and interviewing. Read more about our welcome event and program plan.
06.18.2021NUGoKidney Director, Susan Quaggin, MD partnered with Feinberg Minority Faculty Association with support from NUCATS to moderate a discussion around racial inequity in kidney care and transplant. During the Kidney Health Equity session, speaker Dinee Simpson, MD addressed the racial biases that impact chances of receiving a kidney transplant. While guest speaker, attending nephrologist and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Nwamaka Eneanya, MD, MPH, discussed the inaccuracies in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), a measurement of kidney function. Ray Bignall, MD, FAAP, FASN, director of Kidney Health Advocacy and Community Engagement at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, rounded out the discussion with an inspiring talk on advocacy in medicine and nephrology, inviting participants to find what helps our “purpose meet [our] passion.”
Watch the recorded session on Kidney Health Equity (available until August 25, 2021, NetID credentials required)
Recordings for all Healthy Equity sessions
Read the full recap of Health Equity Week
06.11.2021NUGoKidney and partners, Melvin Thompson, executive director at The Endeleo Institute and Dinee Simpson, MD, founder of Northwestern Medicine African American Transplant Access Program (AATAP) were one of 21 recipients of Northwestern University's Racial Equity & Community Partnership Grants. The awarded proposal aims to help advance racial equity and address kidney health disparities in communities. Specifically, minimizing the barrier between African Americans and organ transplants by creating access to healthy foods.
NUGoKidney initially partnered with The Endeleo Institute and Dinee Simpson, MD in 2019, thanks to the seeds grant from the Center for Community Health (CCH) Alliance for Research in Chicago Communities (ARCC).
04.02.2021Pinelopi Kapitsinou, MD, co-director of NUGoKidney's Therapeutic Design & Development Core (Core B), and Dan Batlle, MD, NUGoKidney Core B user, recently received NUCATS COVID-19 Collaborative Innovation Awards, which funds new interdisciplinary research and collaboration. Pinelopi Kapitsinou, MD combines expertise in acute kidney injury epidemiology with systems biology knowledge while Dan Batlle, MD pursues the identification of a plasma factor that inhibits binding of SARS-CoV-2 to its host receptor, Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2).
Read more about NUCATS COVID-19 Collaborative Innovation Award.
03.02.2021Northwestern’s George M. O’Brien Kidney Research Core Center (NU GoKidney) is joining with other O’Brien Kidney Centers for the National O’Brien Centers Kidney Seminars (NOCKS).
On Friday, March 12th from 11am - 12pm join us for our co-hosted NOCKS featuring Evan Scott, PhD who will discuss his ongoing work of developing rationally designed nanomaterials for controlled targeted therapeutic delivery and potential applications to kidney therapeutics.
02.26.2021NUGoKidney’s SciHigh Program recently joined forces with local non-profit – Color of MedicineTM – to put on a virtual science lab for elementary school students. The first virtual lab kicked off on February 19, 2021 with 3rd grade students from Park Manor Elementary School.
After learning about their mutually shared missions of promoting inclusion of students from underrepresented backgrounds in STEM and medicine, Color of MedicineTM and SciHigh decided to collaborate to bring the magic of science to students through virtual science labs.
02.18.2021Last year on World Kidney Day, we reached nearly 350,000 people with our #sockittokidneydisease campaign, and we're doing it again this year to amplify the World Kidney Day 2021 message on symptom management and patient empowerment so patients with kidney disease can live well and fully participate in every-day life.
Ready your socks and learn how you can sock it to kidney disease.
- 01.05.2021
NUGoKidney's Director - Susan Quaggin, MD, - to lead the American Society of Nephrology in 2021.
During her term as president, the society will focus specifically on eliminating kidney health disparities that will include launching new programs such as the loan mitigation program for trainees underrepresented in medicine, ensuring implementation and access to life- and kidney-saving new therapies such as SGLT2 inhibitors, and harnessing all the transformative advances in the specialty to redefine kidney medicine. Read the full story.
12.21.2020Co-director of NUGoKidney's Therapeutic Design & Development Core- Pinelopi Kapitsinou, MD - talks about her work examining the molecular mechanisms by which hypoxic signaling modulates responses to acute kidney injury and how findings in the lab translate to novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. Watch the video
