The Division of Nephrology has been conducting groundbreaking research and diagnosing and treating patients with kidney diseases since the early 1900s.
Scientific Highlights
1917
Mount Sinai’s Albert A. Epstein described idiopathic nephritic syndrome (Epstein’s syndrome) – the cause of swelling in Bright’s disease.
1946
Arthur Fishberg, Chief of the Dept. of Medicine at Beth Israel and on Mount Sinai’s staff as well, created the Fishberg renal concentration test - a test of renal water concentration.
1947
Mount Sinai performed first kidney dialysis in the U.S., using a Kolff artificial kidney.
1950
Mount Sinai developed a portable kidney dialysis machine.
2000
Mount Sinai, along with Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, determined that HIV-associated nephropathy was caused by HIV-1 infection of kidney epithelial cells. This established that the best treatment for HIV+ patients in renal failure is antiretroviral treatment.
2011
Mount Sinai’s Poplawski, Mastaitis, Isoda, Grosjean, Zheng and Mobbs demonstrated that diabetic nephropathy can be reversed by a relatively simple dietary intervention of adopting a ketogenic diet.
2012
Mount Sinai’s Avi Ma’ayan and John Cijiang He identified a protein kinase that plays a significant role in kidney fibrosis, a condition that results in kidney failure.
2012
Barbara Murphy, MD, previously Chief of the Division of Nephrology, was appointed chair of the Samuel Bronfman Department of Medicine, one of only three women to be appointed Chair of Medicine at a highly ranked medical school and the first female chair in New York City.
2013
John Cijiang He, MD, PhD became Chief of the Division of Nephrology.
2014
A Mount Sinai study points to new biology mechanisms and treatment paradigm for kidney disease. Drug research and development should target cell-cell interactions that promote disease progression.
Learn More2014
Division Chief John Cijiang He, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine, and Avi Ma’ayan, PhD, Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics identified a protein kinase that plays a significant role in kidney fibrosis, a condition that results in kidney failure. His work showed how the HIPK2 gene could be targeted for anti-fibrosis therapy and could ultimately help treat or even cure chronic kidney disease.
2014
Peter S. Heeger, MD, is Professor of Medicine, Director of Transplant Research. He leads the HIN-funded Clinical Trials in Organ Transplantation consortium, conducting trials to assess the utility of noninvasive biomarkers to predict outcomes in transplant recipients. His basic research interests are mechanisms of allograft injury and tolerance, with a focus on complement and T lymphocytes. Recently published work from his lab has delineated a new link between innate and adaptive immunity by demonstrating that alternative pathway complement components influence the strength of all T cell immune responses, including those directed at allogeneic tissues.
2014
Erwin P. Böttinger, MD, is Professor of Medicine, Director of the Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine. His team created the BioMe Biobank Platform with the goal of enrolling Mount Sinai patients into a clinical care cohort that links genetic and biomarker data with clinical data in the patient’s electronic health record. Currently, enrollment surpassed 40,000 patients from the diverse communities served by Mount Sinai. Recently, Dr. Bottinger has also published a landmark paper in JCI demonstrating how glomerular cells crosstalk each other to cause glomerular disease.
2015
Barbara Murphy, MD, published a landmark paper in the Journal of Clinical Investigation that described outcomes of kidney transplant rejection in HIV-infected recipients. Dr. Murphy and her lab found recently that Shroom3 is a new marker for kidney outcomes in patients with chronic allograft nephropathy. They have identified a new molecular mechanism by which Shroom3 contributes to kidney fibrosis.