Nephrology

As researchers continue to make new discoveries in the diagnosis and treatment of kidney disease, our division is expanding accordingly:

• Because developmental anomalies are responsible for more than 50 percent of the causes of kidney failure in children, our division has assembled a large developmental and regenerative biology team.
• In order to take advantage of the remarkable breakthroughs of modern genomics, we are also developing a pharmacogenomics group, which develops drugs to address children's genetic differences.

Children's Division of Nephrology is dedicated to developing lasting treatments for the most serious kidney diseases affecting children.  Some of our initiatives include the following:

• We established a Transplantation Research Center in collaboration with the Brigham and Women's Hospital with the goal of improving patients' tolerance levels for organ transplants.
• Our researchers are investigating the vascular component of the immune response with an eye toward safer, more effective immunosuppressant protocols.
• Our Division has developed the largest and most active kidney transplant clinical trials group in the country in order to transfer such discoveries from the bench to the bedside.
• Our team can provide your child with state-of-the-art diagnosis, treatment and management of her condition. And, when appropriate, we work with specialists at other hospitals to ensure that your child receives comprehensive and coordinated care through her adulthood.

Children's Hospital Boston played an instrumental role in changing the way pediatric patients were listed on the organ waiting list. Thanks in part to our doctors' efforts, patients who are 18 and younger receive priority listing on the waiting list for a new kidney.

Our researchers, in collaboration with researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital, have identified an important gene for segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), a devastating kidney disease that is the second leading cause of kidney failure in children. This discovery may provide clues to developing treatments for the disease, for which there are currently no effective treatments.