Faculty

Our division is actively involved in multiple clinical, basic/translational, health services and quality improvement research. Our faculty have multiple NIH, industry, and foundation funded research projects. We are active participants in the Pediatric Nephrology Research Consortium (PNRC), and the North American Pediatric Renal Trials and Collaborative Studies (NAPRTCS).

Additionally, our faculty participate and play leadership roles in multiple national and international studies:

• cure glomerulonephropathy consortium (CUREGN) 
• nephrotic syndrome study network (NEPTUNE)
• APOL1 long term kidney transplantation outcome (APOLLO) consortium
• H3 Africa Kidney Disease Research Network 
• plus others

Collectively, active participation in these consortia, along with the diverse research portfolio of our faculty provide fellows with ample opportunity to get robust clinical and research training. 

Dr. Eileen Chambers, MD, is actively engaged in research to improve the clinical outcomes for children undergoing kidney transplantation and has been continuously funded by NIH, industry, and foundational grants for the past 16 years. She performs translational research with animal models to elucidate novel therapies for antibody-mediated rejection and to understand how nutritional status affects a transplanted patient’s immune system. Additionally, she leads NIH funded clinical trials to bring novel therapeutics and biomarker monitoring strategies to transplanted children. With her diverse research portfolio, she has mentored over 20 trainees including fellows, residents, and medical students.

Annabelle Chua, MD, is actively involved in national registries and clinical trials to improve the care of children with acute kidney injury (AKI), chronic kidney disease (CKD), dialysis, and transplantation. 

Rasheed Gbadegesin, MD's, research is focused on understanding the molecular pathogenesis of nephrotic syndrome, and the biologic basis for disparity in its incidence, and therapy response.  Nephrotic syndrome and other chronic kidney diseases has profound life-long consequences on a growing child and the therapy resistant type is a leading cause of mortality world-wide. In the last fifteen years, Dr Gbadegesin and his team have identified at least ten new genetic causes and genetic risk factors for nephrotic syndrome and other chronic kidney diseases.  Additionally, he and his collaborators have continued to characterize the mechanisms by which these genes can cause nephrotic syndrome, and they have published a number of high impact papers in this domain. They recently identified biomarkers of disease, and druggable pathways that may treat these genetic defects, especially for the more common idiopathic nephrotic syndrome. Dr Gbadegesin has created a robust bio-repository with more than 1,500 patients with nephrotic syndrome from collaborators and networking around the world.  Notably, he plays an integral leadership role in national and international networks that are unraveling the genetic basis for the high frequency of chronic kidney diseases in people of African ancestry. Dr Gbadegesin has been funded continuously by NIH since joining the faculty at Duke more than 16 years ago. In addition, he is the Principal Investigator on multiple NIH, industry, and foundation grants. Furthermore, in his role as the Associate Dean for Physician Scientist Development Duke School of Medicine, he is invested in building a robust and diverse pipeline to develop and prevent attrition in the biomedical research workforce.    

Reeti Kumar, MD, is involved in clinical research with renal tubular disorders through consortia such as NAPRTCS and PNRC. She also leads Quality Improvement projects on adolescent transition goals and promotion of vaccinations in our nephrotic and CKD populations.  

Brandon Lane, PhD's research is focused on uncovering the genetic variants and molecular mechanisms contributing to disease and therapy response in patients with nephrotic syndrome. In collaboration with Dr. Gbadegesin and other researchers at several prestigious universities, he is also working to identify biomarkers of therapy response as well as new targeted therapeutic options for patients with nephrotic syndrome.

Shashi Nagaraj, MD, is actively researching the genetic causes of renal disease and other undiagnosed disorders in children through the Undiagnosed Diseases Clinic.  Additionally, he is involved in clinical studies to treat childhood complement mediated kidney disorders.

Candice Sheldon, MD, is interested in disparity research and clinical trials which involve novel therapies for kidney disease.