Timothy A. Fields, M.D, Ph.D.

Professional Background

My clinical service work is as a diagnostic pathologist. A pathologist is a physician who primarily provides patient care by serving as a consultant for other physicians. My areas of interest and expertise are kidney disease and transplantation. Prior to coming to KU, I was on the faculty at Duke, where I spent approximately 2.5-3 months on service per year. At KU, I have spent approximately 4 months/year formally on clinical service. In 2016, I spent ~6.5 months on service. I also consult informally on difficult cases throughout the year. Since coming to KU, the number of renal biopsies has risen consistently each year, and my efforts have contributed to this increase. Prior to my coming here, very few kidney biopsies were signed out here. For example, no kidney biopsies were accessioned here in 2007. In 2013, I signed out 127 kidney biopsies. However, since the kidney and transplant pathology service is a complex but relatively low volume one, I do not believe that RVUs or case numbers adequately capture my clinical contribution or value to KU. In 2017, I expanded my clinical duties to include the cardiac pathology service. In 2018, I will be director of this service.
In addition to my clinical service, I have also helped to bring outside referrals to KUMC. I was also involved in setting up the service to receive native and transplant kidney biopsy referrals from physicians outside of KU. I met with physicians in Kansas City, Wichita, and Hays to convince them to send us cases. Currently, we did approximately 40 outside referrals per year for a few years, but that number has diminished. Outside Kansas physicians are willing to send us more if KU ever decides to take them. Also, I have worked with the Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) Foundation, evaluating referrals of nephrectomy (surgical removal of kidney) specimens from patients with PKD that are sent to KU from all over the country. This service has extended KU’s already international clinical reputation in the area of care for PKD.

• MD, Medical Degree, Duke University
• PhD, Biochemistry, Duke University
• BA, Biology, University of Chicago
• Residency, Anatomic and Clinical Pathology, Duke University, Durham, NC

• Kansas Medical License, Kansas State Board of the Healing Arts

• American Heart Association, Member, 2017 - Present
• American Society of Nephrology, Member, 2016 - Present
• Renal Pathology Society, Member, 2013 - 2013
• U.S. and Canadian Academy of Pathology, Member, 1999 - Present

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Research

Overview

My research activity has focused on a few areas, but a theme that has been common to most of my work is investigation of molecular mechanisms that control intercellular communication (also known as signaling).

• Alam SMK, Jasti, S, Kshirsagar, S., K, Tannetta, D., S, Dragovic, R., A, Redman, C., W, Sargent, I., L, Hodes, H., C, Nauser, T., L, Fortes, T, Filler, A., M, Behan, K, Martin, D., R, Fields, T., A, Petroff, B., K, Petroff, M., G. 2018. Trophoblast Glycoprotein (TPGB/5T4) in Human Placenta: Expression, Regulation, and Presence in Extracellular Microvesicles and Exosomes.. Reproductive sciences (Thousand Oaks, Calif.), 25 (2), 185-197
• Silva, L., M, Jacobs, D., T, Allard, B., A, Fields, T., A, Sharma, M, Wallace, D., P, Tran, P., V. 2018. Inhibition of Hedgehog signaling suppresses proliferation and microcyst formation of human Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease cells.. Scientific reports, 8 (1), 4985
• Parrott, J, Fields, T., A, Parrish, M. 2017. Previable Preeclampsia Diagnosed by Renal Biopsy in Setting of Novel Diagnosis of C4 Glomerulopathy.. Case reports in obstetrics and gynecology, 2017, 8698670
• Peda, J., D, Salah, S., M, Wallace, D., P, Fields, P., E, Grantham, C., J, Fields, T., A, Swenson-Fields, K., I. 2016. Autocrine IL-10 activation of the STAT3 pathway is required for pathological macrophage differentiation in polycystic kidney disease.. Disease models & mechanisms, 9 (9), 1051-61
• Pei, L, Solis, G, Nguyen, M., T, Kamat, N, Magenheimer, L, Zhuo, M, Li , J, Curry, J, McDonough, A., A, Fields, T., A, Welch, W., J, Yu, A., S. 2016. Paracellular epithelial sodium transport maximizes energy efficiency in the kidney.. The Journal of clinical investigation, 126 (7), 2509-18
• Kapitsinou, P., P, Rajendran, G, Astleford, L, Michael, M, Schonfeld, M., P, Fields, T, Shay, S, French, J., L, West, J, Haase, V., H. 2016. The Endothelial Prolyl-4-Hydroxylase Domain 2/Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 2 Axis Regulates Pulmonary Artery Pressure in Mice.. Molecular and cellular biology, 36 (10), 1584-94
• Savin, V., J, Sharma, M, Zhou, J, Gennochi, D, Fields, T, Sharma, R, McCarthy, E., T, Srivastava, T, Domen, J, Tormo, A, Gauchat, J., F. 2015. Renal and Hematological Effects of CLCF-1, a B-Cell-Stimulating Cytokine of the IL-6 Family.. Journal of immunology research, 2015, 714964
• Savin, V., J, Sharma, M, Zhou, J, Gennochi, D, Fields, T, Sharma, R, McCarthy, E., T, Srivastava, T, Domen, J, Tormo, A, Gauchat, J., F. 2015. Renal and Hematological Effects of CLCF-1, a B-Cell-Stimulating Cytokine of the IL-6 Family.. Journal of immunology research, 2015, 714964
• Elsarraj, H., S, Hong, Y, Valdez, K., E, Michaels, W, Hook, M, Smith, W., P, Chien, J, Herschkowitz, J., I, Troester, M., A, Beck, M, Inciardi, M, Gatewood, J, May, L, Cusick, T, McGinness, M, Ricci, L, Fan, F, Tawfik, O, Marks, J., R, Knapp, J., R, Yeh, H., W, Thomas, P, Carrasco, D., R, Fields, T., A, Godwin, A., K, Behbod, F. 2015. Expression profiling of in vivo ductal carcinoma in situ progression models identified B cell lymphoma-9 as a molecular driver of breast cancer invasion.. Breast cancer research : BCR, 17, 128
• Selfridge, J., E, Wilkins, H., M, L, Carl, S., M, Koppel, S, Funk, E, Fields, T, Lu, J, Tang, E., P, Slawson, C, Wang, W, Zhu, H, Swerdlow, R., H. 2015. Effect of one month duration ketogenic and non-ketogenic high fat diets on mouse brain bioenergetic infrastructure.. Journal of bioenergetics and biomembranes, 47 (1-2), 1-11