PKD Center Members

The Kansas PKD Center has a multidisciplinary makeup. Among the 28 members, there are members with primary faculty appointments at the KUMC School of Medicine in the Department of Internal Medicine, Divisions of Nephrology & Hypertension and Hematology & Oncology; the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology; and five basic science departments, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Molecular & Integrative Physiology, Anatomy & Cell Biology, Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Therapeutics, and Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. The Center also has members at the KUMC School of Health Professions in the Department of Dietetics & Nutrition and the Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences. Thus, there are members with primary appointments in eight different KUMC departments and two different divisions within Internal Medicine. In addition, there are members at KU-Lawrence, the University of Missouri-Columbia, and Emory University.

PKD Center Membership Roster

First	Last	Research Area
Udayan	Apte	HNF-4α, Wnt/β-catenin & hippo kinase in liver regeneration
Prachee	Avasthi	Regulation of flagellar length by MAPK pathway signaling
Gustavo	Blanco	Ouabain and NaK-ATPase regulation in PKD
James	Calvet	The role of the polycystins as a GPCR receptor-channel complex
Andras	Czirok	Growth factor signaling and ECM in vascular patterning
Aron	Fenton	Warburg metabolism in PKD; allosteric regulation of M2PYK
Timothy	Fields	Innate immune regulation of PKD progression using mouse models
Robin	Maser	Polycystin-1 biochemistry, signaling & adhesion GPCR function of PC1
Kerri	McGreal	Testing hydralazine as an epigenetic inhibitor of DNMT1
Reem	Mustafa	Methods in outcomes research; surveys and focus groups
Akinlolu	Ojo	Chronic kidney disease, health disparities, kidney transplantation
Stephen	Parnell	GPCR signal transduction in PKD; mouse models and drug testing
Kenneth	Peterson	PKD1 gene structure and analysis; mouse models
Michele	Pritchard	Congenital hepatic fibrosis in ARPKD, liver cyst formation
Reena	Rao	Renal fibrosis in PKD, mouse models; vasopressin signaling
Peter	Rowe	Phosphate/calcium; renal & bone vitamin D metabolism in CKD
Madhulika	Sharma	Notch signaling in PKD and the role of iron and ferritin in cyst growth
Chad	Slawson	O-GlcNAc post-translational modification in cystic disease
Jason	Stubbs	Impact of phosphaturia on renal osteopontin production and PKD
Katherine	Swenson-Fields	Innate immune system and the regulation of PKD progression
Pamela	Tran	Role of cilia dysfunction in renal cystic disease; cilia mouse models
Darren	Wallace	Ca2+, cAMP, and B-Raf signaling to mTOR; periostin biology
Christopher	Ward	Polycystin protein complex, urinary exosomes; gene targeting
Franz	Winklhofer	Clinical PKD; clinical trials
Alan	Yu	Epithelial ion transport, claudins, PKD therapy development

Criteria for Membership

The Administrative Core has the responsibility for establishing criteria for center membership. These criteria will be established by the Internal Advisory Committee and reviewed on a yearly basis, as will the membership roster. The Core Center leadership has determined that center membership should meet the following criteria:

Full Center Membership Guidelines

• Faculty position at a regional Kansas City academic or research institution
• Desire to promote the mission of the Kansas PKD Research and Translation Core Center
• PKD research project that will require the use of one or more of the biomedical research cores
• PKD research interest in at least one of the areas of research emphasis
• Interest in collaborating with other PKD Core Center members
• PKD research grant as PI or Co-I in the past 3 years and ongoing effort to continue PKD grant funding
• Publication in the PKD field and desire to continue research on PKD, or currently active research project in the PKD field that has promise of eventual publication.
• Interest in contributing to the Educational Enrichment Program of the Core Center

Affiliate membership would apply to investigators who have a beginning interest in PKD research and have the potential to become a full center member. The important criterion for affiliate membership is that a researcher should have a collaboration with a full member, but it is not necessary to have PKD funding or PKD publications yet. The following are the criteria for affiliate center membership:

Affiliate Center Membership Guidelines

• Faculty position at a regional Kansas City academic or research institution
• Desire to promote the mission of the Kansas PKD Research and Translation Core Center
• Interest in exploring research in PKD
• Interest in use of one or more of the biomedical research cores
• Research interest in at least one of the areas of research emphasis
• Collaboration with one of the full PKD Core Center members
• Interest in contributing to the Educational Enrichment Program of the Core Center