Clinicn Investigator, Asst Prf Nephrology, Mass General Research Institute

Assistant Professor of Medicine Harvard Medical School

Assistant Physician Nephrology, Massachusetts General Hospital

MD Seth G. S. Medical College 1999

acute kidney injury; atrial natriuretic factor; calciphylaxis; cardiovascular surgical procedures; diuretics; hospitalists; hyponatremia; kidney failure, chronic; natriuretic peptides; referral and consultation; renal dialysis; renal insufficiency, chronic; thiosulfates; uremia My research is primarily focused on the areas of calcific uremic arteriolopathy (CUA), a.k.a. calciphylaxis and vascular calcification in dialysis patients.

CUA, a dermal arteriolar calcification disorder seen in dialysis patients, has significant morbidity associated with complicated wounds and non-remitting pain and 60-80% one-year mortality. During my nephrology training, I saw many CUA cases and was astounded by the unmet research needs in the CUA field linked to: 1) Unclear pathogenesis and risk factors, 2) Non-existence of circulating diagnostic biomarkers considering the risk of non-healing ulceration from skin biopsy (the current diagnostic gold-standard) and, 3) Absence of effective therapy.

I am interested in understanding the risk factors and pathobiology of CUA, and to develop and examine strategies to effectively diagnose and treat CUA. In addition, I aim to apply the knowledge gained from CUA research to investigate other forms of vascular calcifications in dialysis patients. Over 70% of dialysis patients have coronary artery, aortic or valvular calcifications, and recent literature attributes 50% of cardiovascular deaths in dialysis patients to vascular calcifications. Although, Virchow described the predisposition to vascular calcifications in kidney disease over a century ago, the biology of vascular calcification remains unclear and this limits development and evaluation of treatment interventions. I believe that CUA research will serve as a high-speed template to understand the biology of vascular calcification and accelerate the T2 translational research in this field.