Tarak Srivastava, MD, FASN

Director, Osteogenesis Imperfecta Program; Director, Nephrology Research Laboratory; Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine; Education Associate Professor of Pediatrics, University of Kansas School of Medicine

Full Biography

Tarak Srivastava, MD, FASN, Nephrology, was awarded a 1-year grant from the Pediatric Glomerular Disease Accelerator Grant Program made possible by NephCure and The Pediatric Nephrology Research Consortium (PNRC) that he shared with his collaborator Mukut Sharma, PhD, at Kansas City VA Medical Center. The grant totaled $70,000 with $45,871 of it going to Children's Mercy-Kansas City.

Dr. Srivastava’s study, “Scaffold protein Sh3bp2 plays a central role in pathogenesis of nephrotic syndrome,” will study the connection between Sh3pb2, a scaffold protein, and nephrotic syndrome, the most common glomerular disease in children.

Nephrotic syndrome is a condition that causes the kidneys to leak large amounts of protein into the urine. This can lead to a range of problems, including swelling of body tissues and a greater chance of catching infections. Minimal Change Disease (MCD) and Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) are the two most common histological findings in nephrotic syndrome. The immunosuppressive regimens currently used to treat MCD and FSGS are largely based on observation, and the underlying mechanism of immune dysfunction remains unclear.

Dr. Srivastava and his team will study the blood, urine, and kidney tissue from mice to characterize immune cells. They will also evaluate changes in Sh3bp2 and its binding partners in highly specialized cells in the kidneys, called podocytes, that wrap around capillaries of the glomerulus and mesangial cells that are located in the glomerulus which function as a resident macrophage.

“We hope to understand the immune dysregulation in children with nephrotic syndrome using a combination of evidence from human, animal, and cell culture studies that will allow us target these immune pathways using small molecules and/or RNAi based therapies,” said Dr. Srivastava.