Medicine Nephrology Endocrinology News Archive Featured in the Media JeffNEWS

Building on the success of its Center for Translational Medicine, the Department of Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University has created the Center for Novel Therapies for Kidney Disease, a program to combine basic research, clinical research and care for patients suffering from diabetic kidney disease.

“Diabetes is the number one cause of kidney (renal) failure in the United States,” explains Kumar Sharma, M.D., Center director. “Diabetic kidney disease, which is the first indication of potential kidney failure, affects as many as 30 percent of people with diabetes.    

“In developing this new program, we recognize that slowing or halting renal (kidney) disease will take multidisciplinary diabetes management and treatment programs. Too often,” Dr. Sharma  says, “people who live with diabetes find that their kidney disease becomes progressively worse despite the best available treatment. Ultimately, these patients find that they are so sick that they need to start dialysis or undergo kidney transplantation. Our goal in this new venture is to go from bench to bedside. We will identify biomarkers that would be responsive to novel therapeutics and then develop and prove the therapies.”

“Dr. Sharma is a physician-scientist in the true sense of the word in that he translates his laboratory results directly to improvement in patient care,” notes Arthur Feldman, M.D., Ph.D., Magee Professor and Chairman, Department of Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University. “A novel anti-fibrotic (scarring) drug extensively studied in his lab is now in a NIH-sponsored clinical trial.”

In addition to Dr. Sharma, who is also professor of Medicine at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, the staff of the Center will begin with three investigators, a research associate, a clinical studies coordinator and a study analyst.

The Center will also collaborate with other divisions in the Department of Medicine, Dr. Sharma said.