Dr. Uta Erdbrügger
The Story Teller
Unfortunately, 10% of the world’s population is diagnosed with kidney disease and over 2 million people have to undergo dialysis or kidney transplant to stay alive.
Multiple mechanisms cause kidney disease and each process represents a story by itself. But what exactly triggers kidney disease? How does it progress? How can we stop it? My patient’s stories inspire me every day to find better markers to predict, diagnose, and monitor kidney disease. This means being able to early recognize if not even prevent kidney disease and find improved treatment options. In particular, we want to clarify the role of Extracellular Vesicles (EVs). These are tiny vesicles (blebs) which are secreted by our cells and carry information from one cell to the other. For this reason, we have become very interested in studying EVs as novel candidate bio-markers and bio-activators. EVs might fill some of the knowledge gaps in understanding mechanisms of kidney disease.
Bio:
1996 MD degree, Medical School at Free University, Berlin, Germany
1997 Internship: Franz Volhard Klinik Buch, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany
1998 Residency Internal Medicine: Tulane University, Louisiana, USA
2001 Fellowship in Nephrology: University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, USA
2005 Senior Residency Hannover Medical School, Germany
2009 Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, USA
2017 Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, USA
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