Speaker: Dr Norman Rosenblum
Title: Human Kidney-Urinary Tract Malformation: Horizons for Discovery and Translation
Location: The Michael Smith Lecture Theatre, University of Manchester
Speaker Bio: Dr. Norman Rosenblum is Professor of Paediatrics, Physiology, and Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto, and a Paediatric Nephrologist and Senior Scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children. After training in Paediatrics and Paediatric Nephrology at Children’s Hospital, Boston, and a postdoctoral fellowship with Bjorn Olsen at Harvard Medical School, he established a research program at SickKids, Toronto, to elucidate molecular mechanisms that control normal and malformed kidney development. His lab has elucidated contributions of BMP, WNT and Hedgehog signaling to normal and malformed kidney formation, and has generated several models of human kidney-urinary tract malformation. Current work utilizes genetic mouse models and kidney organoids to study nephrogenesis and ureteropelvic junction obstruction.
Abstract: Kidney-Urinary Tract Malformation is the major cause of childhood chronic kidney disease and an antecedent cause of adult-onset cardiorenal dysfunction. The revolution in developmental genetics and genomics over the past 35 years has elucidated a remarkable body of knowledge regarding the genes, signalling mechanisms, and genetic variants that control kidney formation and malformation. Yet, fundamental gaps remain. This seminar will highlight these opportunities, approaches we are undertaking in mutant mouse models and human kidney organoids to study nephrogenesis and urinary tract obstruction.