Post Doctoral Fellow-MSH-12908-021

Diabetic kidney disease is the number one cause of kidney failure in the USA as well as in the world. Its underlined pathogenesis remains unclear and the treatment is limited. We have been using systems biology approach to study its pathogenesis in order to identify potential new drug targets to treat this disease. Recently, we identified TENM3 as a key molecule involving in glomerular podocyte injury in diabetic kidney disease. The current project will focus on the role of TENM3 in the pathogenesis of diabetic kidney disease. We will use in vitro assays and in vivo animal models to confirm the critical role of TENM3 in podocyte injury in diabetic kidney disease. 

• Perform in vitro cell cultures of glomerular podocytes and test whether overexpression or knockdown of TENM3 affects podocyte function. 
• We will generate mutant constructs of TENM3 to mimic human variants. We will perform qPCR and Western blot analysis of TENM3 expression. 
• We have generated transgenic mouse models with overexpression or knockdown of TENM3 in podocytes. We will test whether these mice develop more or less kidney injury.
• Techniques include cell culture, western blot, qPCR, genotyping of mice, mouse breading, kidney histology analysis, immunostaining, determination of urine albumin and renal function.