Faculty

Dr. Peti-Peterdi is expert in renal and cardiovascular physiology, pathophysiology, glomerular disease pathobiology research, kidney tissue regeneration, functional phenotyping and studying drug mode of actions using intravital imaging.

Dr. Gurley leads the research, clinical care, and education programs for the Department of Medicine at USC. Her research focuses on unraveling mechanisms underlying the most common etiologies of kidney failure – diabetic kidney disease and hypertension – and leverages the power of gene-targeting in mice and mouse models to investigate the renin-angiotensin system.

Dr. Chung is Dr. Karl Jacob Jr and Karl Jacob III Early Career Chair. Her laboratory is interested in developing nano- to macroscale biomaterials that can be utilized in medicine.

Dr. Da Sacco is expert in translational kidney biology, glomerular disease research, and uses bioengineered human glomerulus-on-a-chip, glomerular filtration modeling to study disease mechanisms, perform nephrotoxicity screening, drug efficacy testing, and biomarker discovery.

Dr. Goodrich is expert in environmental epidemiology, translational science, data science, multiomics integration, and renal physiology. His research integrates environmental exposure data with multi-omics to identify biological mechanisms linking environmental factors to kidney disease, cancer, and other chronic conditions across the lifespan.

Dr. Gyarmati is expert in cardiology, translational medicine, renal and cardiovascular physiology, pathophysiology, vascular biology, vascular and inflammatory diseases. Her research focuses on the physiological and disease mechanisms of neuro-endothelial cells, a newly discovered vascular cell type, and human and preclinical therapeutic translation.

Dr. Lin is a nephrologist and health services researcher with expertise in economics, policy, quality of care, value of care, dialysis, chronic kidney disease. His research focuses on the impact of public policy and federal regulation on kidney care, the provision of dialysis in public and private insurance markets, and transitions of care for patients with kidney disease.

Dr. Li is expert in stem cell biology, kidney organoid, kidney regeneration, polycystic kidney disease, and drug discovery. His research uses human pluripotent stem cells, kidney progenitor cells, organoids, and assembloids to study organ regeneration, disease modeling, and to create transplantable, stem cell–derived kidneys for kidney replacement therapy.

Dr. Lindström is expert in kidney and developmental biology, synthetic biology, and regenerative medicine. His research focuses on the mechanisms of organogenesis, stem cell differentiation, human kidney development, genetic basis of kidney disease, and constructing iPSC-derived kidney organoids that model disease and enable regenerative therapeutics.

Dr. McDonough is an expert in cardiorenal physiology and hypertension. Her research uses basic and translational approaches to understand the molecular mechanisms responsible for the maintenance of electrolyte homeostasis and control of blood pressure in the human body, with a focus on sex differences between female and male kidney physiology, renal transporters and the functional consequences.

Dr. Nadim is a nephrologist and hypertension specialist with expertise in acute kidney injury in critically ill patients in the ICU, especially those with end-stage liver disease.

Dr. Nelson is expert in renal and microvascular biology, cardiovascular disease pathophysiology, RAS signaling, bioinformatics and multiomic analysis of mouse and human kidney tissues including spatial transcriptomics. His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of kidney diseases and hypertension, including the role of environmental factors in disease development.

Dr. Perin is expert in renal and stem cell biology, developmental biology, glomerular disease pathobiology, kidney regeneration therapeutics and nutritional interventions. Her research focuses on the mechanisms of kidney injury and repair with a particular emphasis on glomerular damage, and on the mechanisms that regulate cancer stem cell self-renewal in Wilms tumor.

Dr. Petrosyan is expert in stem cell biology, renal pathophysiology, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine. Her research focuses on the role of the extracellular matrix (ECM) in kidney development, disease, and cancer, with a focus on Wilms tumor.

Dr. Qazi is a transplant nephrologist with expertise in clinical research and has been the lead and principal investigator for several clinical trials.

Dr. Sedrakyan is expert in vascular biology, stem cells, glomerular disease pathobiology, kidney regeneration, and therapeutics. His research focuses on lipid biology and metabolic reprogramming in renal cells, particularly as they relate to the pathogenesis and progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD).