We all know our kidneys are charged with filtering our blood – an astonishing 52 gallons of it a day. But how does that actually happen? It turns out that it’s not unlike what one might imagine. Each of the body’s approximately one million nephrons, the functional units of the kidney, contains a glomerulus, or…
Read MoreChronic complications of diabetes are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality not only in the western world but worldwide. The metabolic changes caused by diabetes, especially hyperglycemia (high blood sugar levels), can lead over time to damage in the circulation system of the diabetic patient. Subsequent ischemia (inadequate blood supply reaching organs) occurs, as…
Read MoreAll my life I have been interested in studying the complications of diabetes. Diabetes has two sides: on the one hand it is a metabolic disorder that effects glucose levels, and the metabolism is treated by medications that lower glucose. On the other hand, over time diabetes leads to damaging changes in the vascular bed,…
Read MoreTissue regeneration has fascinated scientists for hundreds of years. Regeneration can be seen as a complex system of communication between cells, each telling the other what to do and how to coordinate and grow together to make new tissues. Once we understand the messages being sent between cells, we will have the chance to promote…
Read MoreIain Drummond, Ph.D., professor and director of the Kathryn W. Davis Center for Regenerative Biology and Aging, focuses his research on kidney disease – specifically how to create an artificial kidney. Working with a team of brilliant collaborators across the globe, Dr. Drummond is tasked with understanding, and then trying to recreate, the complicated vascular…
Read MoreAs a child growing up in East Millinocket, Maine, Scott MacKenzie was a huge fan of science and science fiction. One of the first magazines he ever subscribed to was Scientific American; one of the first books he ever read was science fiction. Now he can read about the research he has supported as the…
Read MoreNephrologists have always been interested in basic biology. At the MDI Biological Laboratory, scientists have been making major scientific contributions to the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of renal tubules and their implications for salt and water balance — and hence their effect on disease — for nearly a century. In recent years, the focus…
Read MoreIn this interview in Regenerative Medicine Network, an online publication, Hermann Haller, M.D., an MDI Biological Laboratory faculty member and director of the Department of Nephrology and Hypertension at Hannover Medical School in Hanover, Germany, discusses the quest to replace lost or damaged kidney tissue, or replace the kidney entirely.
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