Faculty

Dale R. Abrahamson, Ph.D.

Emeritus Professor

Publications

Professional Background

Dale R. Abrahamson, Ph.D., earned his doctorate in Biology at the University of Virginia in 1981. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and then joined the Department of Cell Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (1983-1998), where he rose to the rank of Professor. He relocated to the University of Kansas Medical Center in 1998 to become Chair of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology. Among his honors and awards, Dr. Abrahamson has been an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association and he received a MERIT Award from the NIDDK/NIH (1993-2003). At KUMC, Dr. Abrahamson is one of the co-Founders of the Jared Grantham Kidney Institute. Dr. Abrahamson was also PI of a NIGMS/NIH COBRE grant for 15 years that provided funds for hiring over 10 new faculty, granting numerous pilot research projects in developmental biology, and supporting multiple scientific core facilities at KUMC. He received the Chancellors Research Award (2005), Dolph Simons Award for Biomedical Research (Higuchi – Kansas University Endowment Association; 2005), and is currently University Distinguished Professor (2008 - ). In 2019, he received the “Jayhawk Award” for Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring.

Research Overview

For most of his independent faculty career, Dr. Abrahamson’s research has concentrated on studying glomerular development during kidney organogenesis, how the glomerular basement membrane (GBM) is assembled, and what goes wrong in certain glomerular diseases that results in proteinuria. The underlying hypothesis driving this work supposes that the glomerular endothelial cells and podocytes are in a dynamically reciprocal interrelationship with the GBM and that errors in GBM biosynthesis and maintenance adversely affects the biology of those cells. Similarly, glomerular cell injury often results in abnormal GBM biosynthesis, leading to further cell damage and defects in the glomerular filtration barrier. His lab studied these problems chiefly in mouse models of human glomerular disease (Alport Syndrome and anti-GBM disease), using a variety of transgenic, kidney transplantation, and embryonic kidney organ culture approaches.

Selected Publications

Abrahamson, D., R. 1991. Glomerulogenesis in the developing kidney.. Seminars in nephrology, 11 (4), 375-89
Robert, B, St John, P., L, Abrahamson, D., R. 1998. Direct visualization of renal vascular morphogenesis in Flk1 heterozygous mutant mice.. The American journal of physiology, 275 (1), F164-72
Holzman, L., B, St John, P., L, Kovari, I., A, Verma, R, Holthofer, H, Abrahamson, D., R. 1999. Nephrin localizes to the slit pore of the glomerular epithelial cell.. Kidney international, 56 (4), 1481-91
Abrahamson, D., R, Prettyman, A., C, Robert, B, St John, P., L. 2003. Laminin-1 reexpression in Alport mouse glomerular basement membranes.. Kidney international, 63 (3), 826-34
Steenhard, B., M, Isom, K., S, Cazcarro, P, Dunmore, J., H, Godwin, A., R, St John, P., L, Abrahamson, D., R. 2005. Integration of embryonic stem cells in metanephric kidney organ culture.. Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN, 16 (6), 1623-31
Abrahamson, D., R, St John, P., L, Isom, K, Robert, B, Miner, J., H. 2007. Partial rescue of glomerular laminin alpha5 mutations by wild-type endothelia produce hybrid glomeruli.. Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN, 18 (8), 2285-93
Abrahamson, D., R, Isom, K, Roach, E, Stroganova, L, Zelenchuk, A, Miner, J., H, St John, P., L. 2007. Laminin compensation in collagen alpha3(IV) knockout (Alport) glomeruli contributes to permeability defects.. Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN, 18 (9), 2465-72
Abrahamson, D., R, Hudson, B., G, Stroganova, L, Borza, D., B, St John, P., L. 2009. Cellular origins of type IV collagen networks in developing glomeruli.. Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN, 20 (7), 1471-9
Abrahamson, D., R. 2012. Role of the podocyte (and glomerular endothelium) in building the GBM.. Seminars in nephrology, 32 (4), 342-9
Abrahamson, D., R, Steenhard, B., M, Stroganova, L, Zelenchuk, A, St John, P., L, Petroff, M., G, Patarroyo, M, Borza, D., B. 2019. Maternal alloimmune IgG causes anti-glomerular basement membrane disease in perinatal transgenic mice that express human laminin α5.. Kidney international, 96 (6), 1320-1331