Gerald B. Appel, M.D. - Co-Director
Gerald B. Appel, M.D. - Co-Director
Dr. Appel received his undergraduate training at Cornell University where he graduated in three years as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He then went to Albert Einstein College of Medicine and was a member of the AOA honor society. He completed three years of residency training in Internal Medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and then fellowships in Nephrology at Columbia University and Yale New Haven Medical Center. Returning to Columbia U. in 1978 he is now a Professor of Clinical Medicine with Tenure of Title and Director of Clinical Nephrology. He has published over 200 manuscripts and book chapters. He has served as a officer and President of the New York Society of Nephrology, the on Medical Advisory Boards of the New York-New Jersey branch of the National Kidney Foundation, and as director for numerous programs for the American Society of Nephrology and the National Kidney Foundation. He serves on the editorial board of Up-To-Date and Clinical Journal of American  Society of Nephrology (CJASN). His major interest has been glomerular diseases including focal sclerosis, membranous nephropathy, IgA nephropathy and lupus nephritis.
Qais Al-Awqati, M.D. - Co-Director
Dr. Qais Al-Awqati is the Robert F. Loeb Professor of Medicine and Professor of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. He obtained his medical degree in Baghdad Iraq and completed his training at Johns Hopkins and the Massachusetts General Hospital. He is presently the Editor in Chief of Kidney International as well as being the Deputy Editor of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. He served on the Editorial Boards of  Science, the American Journal of Physiology: Renal Physiology and the American Journal of Physiology: Cell Physiology; and the Journal of Cell Biology. He was the Chairman of the Program Committee for the 2001 Joint meeting of the International and the American Societies of Nephrology. His research work centers on the development and function of the differentiated epithelial cells of the kidney such as those of the glomerulus and kidney tubule. He recently found that there are stem cells in the adult kidney that can repair damaged nephrons
Jai Radhakrishnan, M.D.
Dr. Radhakrishnan joined the faculty at Columbia Univeristy after completing fellowships at the Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Medical School and Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. He is currently an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine and is Director of Fellowship Training in Nephrology at Presbyterian Hospital. He has written numerous manuscripts dealing with the therapy of glomerular diseases and is on the Editoral Board of Kidney International. He is a co-investigator on several on-going clinical trials dealing with glomerular diseases.
Vivette D'Agati, M.D.
Dr. Vivette D’Agati completed her undergraduate studies at Yale College and attended medical school at Duke and New York University. She completed her residency in Pathology and fellowship training in Renal Pathology at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. Her training in renal pathology was under Dr. Conrad Pirani, one of the true “Fathers of Renal Pathology”. She rose through the ranks to become Professor of Pathology in 1994. During this time, she created one of the largest laboratories of renal pathology in the world, processing over 2700 biopsies annually. She has published over 190 original manuscripts and 40 book chapters dealing with numerous major renal diseases. She has co-authored several renal pathology texts and served on the editorial board of the most prestigious renal journals. She has directed the world renowned Columbia University Postgraduate course, “Renal Biopsy in Medical Diseases of the Kidney” for over 20 years
Glen Markowitz, M.D.
Dr. Markowitz received  his undergraduate training at Brandeis University and then graduated from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1994 where he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society. After completing his residency in Anatomic Pathology at Albert Einstein in 1997, he came to Columbia University to train as a renal pathology fellow under Dr. Vivette D’Agati. At the completion of his fellowship in 1998, he joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pathology at Columbia and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2002. Dr. Markowitz is a past recipient of the Renal Pathology Society’s Young Investigator Award. In his seven years on faculty at Columbia, he has published 84 papers and has played an active role in teaching medical students for which he has been a finalist for multiple teaching awards. Dr Markowitz has played a vital role in the expansion of the renal pathology laboratory which now processes 2700 renal biopsies per year.
Donald W. Landry, M.D.
Dr. Landry is a Professor of Medicine and Director of the Division of Nephrology  in the Department of Medicine at Columbia University, College of Physicians & Surgeons. Dr. Landry completed his Ph.D. in organic chemistry at Harvard University under Nobel laureate Robert Burns Woodward in 1979 and then obtained the M.D. degree from Columbia University in 1983. After completing his Residency in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital, he returned to Columbia University as an NIH Physician-Scientist, 1985-90. During this period, Dr. Landry also completed subspecialty training in Nephrology. In 1991, he established a laboratory at Columbia University to investigate medical applications of artificial enzymes. His laboratory in Experimental Therapeutics focuses on organic chemical solutions to intractable medical problems. His clinical research in Nephrology has led to the discovery of a syndrome of deficiency of the hormone vasopressin in shock, a state of low blood pressure that impairs glomerular function. 

Cheryl Kunis, M.D.
Dr. Cheryl L. Kunis graduated with honors from the University of Pennsylvania and received her M.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.  After completing a three year clinical/research fellowship in Nephrology at the New York University School of Medicine, she joined the faculty at Columbia University.  As a member of the Nephrology division, she has been the principal investigator on a number of clinical trials in glomerular diseases including focal sclerosis, membranous glomerulonephritis and diabetic nephropathy.  She has recently been working with Dr. Jonathan Barasch in studying newer proteins which appear to be renoprotective in patients with acute renal failure.  These studies are now branching out to include glomerular diseases as well as other forms of progressive renal failure.  She has authored a number of papers in the field of nephrology and has a very large clinical practice in glomerular diseases.

 

Ali Gharavi , M.D.
Dr. Gharavi is Irving Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia University. He received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and his M.D. Degree at George Washington University. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine and fellowships in Hypertension and Nephrology at The Mount Sinai Medical Center.  He next obtained post doctoral training in genetics at Yale University.  In 2003, he joined Columbia University to establish a laboratory aimed on investigating the genetic basis of kidney disease.  His research work focuses on elucidating the genetics of glomerular diseases (particularly IgA nephropathy, HIV associated nephropathy) and renal and urologic developmental abnormalities. Dr. Gharavi is recipient of Irving Clinical Scholar Award from Columbia University, the 2004 Judson Daland Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Investigations from the American Philosophical society and the 2005 Clinical Scientist Award from the National Kidney Foundation.  He is also on the editorial board of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology

Michael Barry Stokes, M.D.
Dr. Stokes is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pathology. He obtained his medical degree in Dublin, Ireland, and completed pathology residency at New York University Medical Center. This was followed by renal pathology fellowship training at the University of Washington, Medial Center in Seattle, where Dr Stokes was the recipient of a National Kidney Foundation Research Fellowship Grant. Prior to joining the Renal Pathology Division at Columbia University Medical Center in 2002, Dr. Stokes directed the Renal Pathology Laboratory at New York University Medical Center. He has authored or co-authored twenty manuscripts, mainly focused on clinical-pathologic correlations in glomerular disease

 
Jonathan Barasch, M.D.
Dr.  Barasch MD PhD was trained in the field of cell biology in the laboratories of Michael D. Gershon, Chairman Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology and Qais Al-Awqati, Chief, Division of Nephrology. He was also trained in nephrology by Gerald Appel, Chief, Clinical Neprology and is board certified in medicine and nephrology. He is on the editorial board of the American Journal of Physiology and a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. His group has isolated the first molecules to cause glomeruli to form from fetal cells and, conversely, is identifying a molecule that inhibits the formation of glomeruli. He is also investigating a regulator that proportions the cells of the glomerulus. His other major accomplishment is the isolation of the progenitor cell that gives rise to the glomerulus.