Faculty

Research Summary

Dr. Balani's current clinical research focus is in pediatric kidney transplantation, particularly in improving quality of care provided and improving outcomes.

Bio

Dr. Chavers completed her fellowship in Pediatric Nephrology at the University of Minnesota and joined the faculty in 1982. She has been a Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Nephrology since 1999. Dr. Chavers has a strong background in clinical research and was the Clinical Research Medical Director in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota from 2014 to 2018. Her research interests include health outcomes in children with chronic kidney disease and, in particular, in children on chronic dialysis and those undergoing kidney transplantation. She has researched cardiovascular disease in children undergoing chronic dialysis and has published the results of studies that have led to the development of immunosuppression protocols that have advanced the outcomes of kidney transplantation in children less than 2 years of age. She serves on the Observational Study Monitoring Board for the National Institutes of Health sponsored Chronic Kidney Disease in Childhood long-term study. Dr. Chavers is the Principal Investigator for a study sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control that evaluates urine albumin levels in the healthy US population as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

Clinical Summary

Cardiovascular disease in children with kidney disease; Diabetic nephrology; Kidney transplants; Pediatric dialysis; Pediatric kidney transplantation; Nephrology; Pediatric Nephrology

Bio

Dr. Kashtan is a tenured Professor of Pediatrics and board-certified pediatric nephrologist with over 30 years of clinical experience. Dr. Kashtan has a particular interest in genetic kidney diseases. He is an internationally recognized authority on Alport syndrome, founder and Executive Director of the Alport Syndrome Treatments and Outcomes Registry (ASTOR), and a member of the Medical Advisory Board of the Alport Syndrome Foundation. Dr. Kashtan has authored numerous original research articles, reviews and book chapters on the biology, diagnosis, and treatment of Alport syndrome. His original research articles on Alport syndrome include basic laboratory studies, animal experiments, and clinical research. Dr. Kashtan developed methods for diagnosing Alport syndrome by examining type IV collagen chains in kidney and skin biopsies. He is the author of the Alport syndrome entries at the online resources UpToDate and GeneReviews. He has lectured on Alport syndrome at numerous institutions and meetings, both nationally and internationally, to professional and lay audiences. Dr. Kashtan regularly consults with biopharmaceutical companies interested in developing novel therapies for Alport syndrome, including advising on clinical trial design, and has served as a site investigator for several clinical trials focused on Alport syndrome.

Clinical Summary

Specialties:

• Pediatrics
• Transplant Surgery

Clinics:

• Pediatric Specialty Care-Discovery Clinic
• Transplant Center

Clinical Interests:

• Pediatric nephrology
• Pediatric kidney transplantation
• Pediatric dialysis

Bio

Dr. Kizilbash is a board certified pediatric nephrologist and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. She pursued a fellowship in pediatric nephrology and Masters in clinical research at the University of Minnesota before joining it in 2016 as an Assistant Professor. Her clinical interests encompass pediatric kidney transplantation, hypertension, kidney stones, chronic kidney disease including dialysis, congenital anomalies of the kidney and the urinary tract, and glomerulonephritis. Dr. Kizilbash is actively involved in clinical research and quality improvement initiatives. Her research focuses on improving kidney transplant outcomes in children, and her quality improvement activities are aimed at improving the care of children with chronic kidney disease.

Bio

Dr. Kouri is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Nephrology and board certified as a pediatric nephrologist through the American Board of Pediatrics. She completed her fellowship in Pediatric Nephrology at Indiana University/Riley Hospital for Children in 2017, and was faculty there prior to joining the team at the University of Minnesota in 2019. She is a member of the public policy committee through the American Society of Pediatric Nephrology. Her clinical and research interests include glomerular diseases, end stage renal disease and dialysis, as well as transition of care in adolescent patients with kidney disease.

Bio

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.

Clinical Summary

Fabry Disease; Pediatric kidney transplantation; Pediatric dialysis

Bio

Dr. McEwen is a board-certified pediatric nephrologist and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota. He has a research background where he received a PhD studying the effects of high dietary salt intake on vascular function and later worked as a research fellow studying the role of regulatory T cells in immunological tolerance of organ transplants. His focus has since changed to the clinical care and quality improvement of pediatric nephrology patients where he has special interest in hypertension, critical care nephrology, congenital anomalies of the kidneys and urinary tract, and cardiovascular outcomes of kidney transplantation.

Bio

In addition to teaching, Dr. Najera's research interest is in the effects autoimmune diseases have on kidney function. This is particularly important in children, because they seem to have significant renal conditions associated with autoimmune disease.

Clinical Summary

Pediatric nephrology; Autoimmune diseases and kidney function; Pediatric kidney transplantation; Pediatric dialysis

Bio

Dr. Michelle Rheault is a board certified pediatric nephrologist and Professor of Pediatrics. She completed her Pediatric Nephrology fellowship at the University of Minnesota in 2006 followed by a research fellowship at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. She joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota in 2008 and is currently the Director of the Division of Pediatric Nephrology and medical director of the pediatric dialysis unit. She is on the steering committee of the Pediatric Nephrology Research Consortium, a clinical research network that aims to facilitate collaboration in pediatric nephrology. Her clinical and research interests include Alport syndrome and other genetic kidney diseases, pediatric glomerular disease, and pediatric end stage kidney disease.

Bio

Dr. Sinaiko is an established investigator of blood pressure/hypertension and insulin resistance in children and adolescents. These studies are focused on obesity and insulin resistance during childhood and adolescence on the development of young adult cardiovascular risk and the insuln resistance syndrome. He is a faculty member in the department of Pediatrics and Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health. Dr. Sinaiko has had continuous research funding from the National Institutes of Health for the past 20+ years.