Dr. Mauer completed his Fellowship in Pediatric Nephrology at the University of Minnesota (UMN) and joined the faculty there in 1972. He was promoted to the rank of Professor of pediatrics in 1979. He was Co-Director of the Pediatric Nephrology Division from 1992 to 2009. His early clinical interests were in the management of acute and chronic kidney failure, helping to adapt hemodialysis and kidney transplantation to infants and small children. His more basic research efforts initially focused primarily on diabetic kidney disease, the cause of nearly half of chronic kidney failure in the Western world. Initially in animal studies and then in research kidney biopsies in humans, he helped to describe the structural changes in the kidney in diabetes that lead to kidney failure. He explored the cellular basis of diabetic kidney disease (DKD) in a series of studies in cells cultured from patients with diabetes. He showed that the structural changes of DKD were reversible by cure of insulin dependent (type 1) diabetes by pancreas transplantation. He was Principle Investigator of two large international multicenter NIH funded clinical treatment trials in type 1 diabetes. In the last 12 years he has also studied a relatively rare form of inherited kidney injury related to Fabry disease and has helped to elucidate the kidney structural basis of this disorder. His lab trained more than 20 young investigators, many of whom remain actively involved in research. He has published more than 350 research articles and 90 book chapters. For 16 years he was Chair of the UMN Medical School Committee of Student Scholastic Standing, helping medical students to overcome academic difficulties. He also was Chair of the Department of Pediatrics Promotions Committee for more than 10 years. He is a member of the UMN Academy of Excellence in Health Research. Although semi-retired he remains actively engaged in research.
