Compound Found to Protect the Kidney Filter and Prevent Proteinuric Kidney Disease
There are currently few therapies to protect the kidney’s essential filtration barrier. However, groundbreaking work by Anna Greka, MD, PhD, and colleagues in her lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have identified a small-molecule compound which in pre-clinical models has been shown to protect podocytes and preserve the kidney filter, thereby preventing or ameliorating proteinuric kidney disease.
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Interventional Nephrology Program Advances Vascular Hemodialysis Access Procedures and Research
At Brigham and Women’s Hospital, dialysis patients who require simple or complex access repair or revisions are treated by members of the interdisciplinary Interventional Nephrology Program, one of few programs of its kind across the country. “We are focused on finding new solutions for very difficult medical situations, with dialysis access for patients on hemodialysis as well as peritoneal dialysis,” said Dirk M. Hentschel, MD, Director of Interventional Nephrology.
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Kidney Organoids Derived from Stem Cells Model Drug-induced Injury, Glomerular Disease, Polycystic Kidney Disease and Fibrosis Associated with Chronic Kidney Disease
By taking human pluripotent stem cells that are derived from skin cells and adding small molecules and growth factors, nephrology researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have created kidney organoids - miniature models in a dish that replicate many of the functions of human kidneys. These models provide a platform for intensive research into both organ growth and the response of renal tissues to injury, fibrosis, and drug therapies.
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Understanding and Controlling a Stealth Virus to Preserve Transplanted Kidneys
More than 60 years after the world’s first successful human kidney transplant was performed at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), nephrologists at BWH continue to pioneer methods for protecting the integrity of transplanted kidneys and improving outcomes for kidney transplant recipients by proactive management of a potentially devastating viral infection. Despite the best efforts of clinicians and researchers, one of the greatest challenges to preserving a transplanted kidney over the last several decades has been the BK polyoma virus (BK), named after the patient from whom it was first isolated in 1971. The virus is commonly acquired in childhood, possibly through upper respiratory tract infections.
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