Amy Karger, MD, PhD

Associate Professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology

Amy Karger

Contact Info

Fax 612-899-5614

Office Address:
D211 Mayo Memorial Building
420 Delaware Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Mailing Address:
MMC 609 Mayo
8609
420 Delaware SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Associate Professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology


MD&PhD, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, 2006

Residency in Clinical Pathology, University of Minnesota, 2011

Fellowship in Clinical Chemistry, University of Minnesota, 2013

BS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Chemical Engineering and Biology), 1998

Summary

Dr. Karger is a member of the Division of Molecular Pathology and Genomics and a faculty investigator at the Advanced Research and Diagnostic Laboratory (ARDL). She has multiple research interests including studying immune responses to COVID-19 infection and vaccines, predicting and delaying the progression of chronic kidney disease, and studying cardiovascular and kidney disease complications in patients with type 1 diabetes. Dr. Karger currently serves as Program Director and Principal Investigator for one of four federally funded Serological Sciences Network (SeroNet) Capacity Building Centers, which has been tasked with developing serological assays to test for COVID-19 antibodies, and is conducting research studies to better understand the immune response to COVID-19 infection and vaccination. Additionally, she has been appointed as co-chair of the SeroNet Serology Assays Ops Group. 

Dr. Karger also serves as Director of the Central Laboratory for the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI), which tests biomarkers such as creatinine, cystatin C, beta-2 microglobulin and beta-trace protein to improve GFR estimating equations. Improved GFR estimates give clinicians the ability to detect disease progression at earlier stages. In addition, she  serves as co-investigator for the Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications trial (EDIC) and co-director of the Biomedical Assay Laboratory for the Division of Intramural Population Health Research at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). Previously, Dr. Karger served as a principal investigator with the Preventing Early Renal Loss in Diabetes (PERL) consortium. The consortium undertook a multi-center, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial aimed at evaluating the efficacy of allopurinol in preventing kidney function loss in individuals with type 1 diabetes; the trial found no evidence of benefit from serum urate reduction with allopurinol.

Research

Publications

Clinical

Board Certifications

American Board of Pathology, Clinical Pathology, 2011