David Sheikh-Hamad, MD
Professor of Medicine, Molecular & Cellular Biology
Baylor College of Medicine
He / Him / His
Mesoamerican nephropathy is an epidemic of kidney failure affecting farm workers (predominantly male) in Central America; similar disease [aka, chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology (CKDu)] affects agricultural communities world-wide. We surveyed migrant workers with kidney failure at a Harris Health-based dialysis unit and discovered a link between exposure to agrochemicals (especially paraquat) and kidney failure. Weekly injections of sub-toxic doses of paraquat to mice for 15 weeks resulted in kidney failure – similar to Mesoamerican nephropathy. The study also examines kidney transporters for paraquat (OCT2 and MATE1), and finds a similar pattern in kidney biopsies of patients with Mesoamerican nephropathy. Data detailing these findings will appear in a September issue of CJASN.
About the Speaker: Dr. Sheikh-Hamad earned his MD degree from the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel. After completing rotating internship at the Rambam Hospital in Haifa/Israel, he moved to the US and completed residency in Internal Medicine and Fellowship in Nephrology at the UCLA/San Fernando Valley Program, Los Angeles/California. This was followed by NRSA Fellowship in the Lab of Kidney and Electrolytes Metabolism (LKEM)/NHLBI/NIH under the mentorship of Dr. Maurice Burg. He was then recruited as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Nephrology/Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston/Texas. He rose through the ranks, and is currently a tenured Professor in the Departments of Medicine, and Molecular & Cellular Biology; he is Director for basic research in the Selzman Institute for Kidney Health/Division of Nephrology, Baylor College of Medicine. He served as Chief of Renal Services at the Ben Taub General Hospital from 2000-2020 and established a unique outpatient dialysis program at Riverside that provides Medicare-equivalent care for unfunded community patients with ESKD. His research focuses on mechanisms of ischemic AKI, and specifically on protective mitochondrial pathways (STC1/AMPK/SIRT3). Most recently, his lab identified megalin as a shuttle for hormones from the cell surface to the mitochondria. Throughout his career, he was funded through the NIH/AHA and VA.
Friday, September 2, 2022, 12:00-1:15 pm Eastern
Field Auditorium Room 1112, Grainger Hall (9 Circuit Dr, Durham, NC)
Masks are REQUIRED regardless of vaccination status. Please stay home if you aren’t feeling well – you may attend via Zoom instead (see below).
This seminar will also be presented live via Zoom.
Register HERE to receive a Zoom link for our entire Fall 2022 seminar series!
You only need to register ONCE to receive the link for our entire fall series