Spotlight on Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD)

Health Awareness—Finding the Key to New Medical Breakthroughs

(NAPS)—When it comes to medical breakthroughs, basic research is the first important step to understanding how diseases develop and where to intervene. Whether studying animals or plants, the payoff can be big. Read more

Unexpected Discoveries, Unsuspected Connections: The Case of the Primary Cilium and Kidney Disease

It took green algae, lab mice, and 40 years of basic research into an unexciting cell appendage to turn medical orthodoxy on its head. The unexciting cell appendage was the primary cilium, a small hair-like structure that protrudes, much like an antenna, from virtually every cell in the human body. Found in everything from one-celled eukaryotes to multicellular mammals, cilia come in two types—motile cilia and nonmoving “primary” cilia. Researchers had long recognized the importance of motile cilia (and structurally identical but typically larger flagella). Read more

Scientists Researching PKD

  • Susan Dutcher, Ph.D.
    http://www.genetics.wustl.edu/sdlab/
  • Gregory Pazour, Ph.D.
    http://www.umassmed.edu/gsbs/faculty/show.cfm?start=Research&name=pazour
  • Joel Rosenbaum, Ph.D.
    http://www.yale.edu/rosenbaum/
  • George Witman, Ph.D.
    http://www.umassmed.edu/cellbio/faculty/witman.cfm

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