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Nirupama Ramkumar Receives American Diabetes Association Junior Faculty Development Award


Nirupama Ramkumar Receives American Diabetes Association (ADA) Junior Faculty Development Award

Dr. Nirupama Ramkumar, MD, MPH has recieved the American Diabetes Association (ADA) Junior Faculty Development Award for "Role of collecting duct prorenin receptor in diabetic kidney disease." This two-year award, activated from February 1 2019 through December 31, 2020, supports early investigators as they establish independence as diabetes researchers. 

"Role of collecting duct prorenin receptor in diabetic kidney disease" Overview

Diabetes is a major cause of kidney failure in the United States. Among patients with diabetes, those with hypertension have an increased risk of developing diabetic kidney disease and progressing to kidney failure. Further, current treatment regimens to reduce blood pressure and prevent kidney disease are not uniformly effective in all diabetic patients. Therefore, understanding the factors that increase blood pressure and predispose to kidney disease is critical to reducing disease burden. Dr. Ramkumar's proposal uses novel, genetically altered mouse models to determine the role of two components, prorenin and prorenin receptor in the control of blood pressure and renal injury in type 2 diabetes. The findings from this study could identify a novel pathway that can ultimately be used to treat diabetic hypertension and kidney disease.

Dr. Ramkumar is an assistant professor in the Division of Nephrology and Hyptertension. She received her medical degree from Bangalore University, India and obtained her Master's degree in Public Health from the University of Utah. She completed residency in Internal Medicine at UCSF-Fresno and a Nephrology Fellowship training at the University of Utah. Her clinical interests include hypertension, polycystic kidney disease and glomerulonephritis.