Multidisciplinary Benign Urology Research Symposium

8:15AM Welcome and Introductions

• Cindy L. Amundsen, MD, KURe PI and Program Director

INVITED SPEAKERS AND PANEL DISCUSSION 1:  Upper urinary tract implications of congenitalism and development

• 8:30AM: Sunder Sims-Lucas, PhD - Director, Histology Core and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Director of Student Research Training, University of Pittsburgh.
  • Relating maternal health and nutrition preconception and during pregnancy to fetal renal development
• 8:45AM: Lori Lynn O'Brien, PhD - Assistant Professor, Cell Biology and Physiology, UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine.
  • Susceptibility to renal disease: from genetics to external factors during fetal development 
• 9:00AM: Alison P. Sanders, PhD, MS - Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, University of Pittsburgh, School of Public Health.
  • Environmental chemicals and kidney function in pregnant women and children
• 9:15AM: Christina Ching, MD – Pediatric Urologist, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus OH.
  • Novel biomarkers of urinary tract obstruction
• 9:30AM: Moderated discussion

9:50AM: POSTER SESSION 1 AND REFRESHMENTS

10:55AM: TRAINEE PLATFORM PRESENTATIONS (Awardees and select KURe Scholars)

11:45AM: LUNCH

11:45AM: LUNCH WITH EXPERTS (registration required)

12:45PM: POSTER SESSION 2

INVITED SPEAKERS AND PANEL DISCUSSION 2:  Lower urinary tract implications of congenitalism and development

• 1:55PM: Rasheed Gbadegesin, MD. MBBS - Wilburt C. Davison Distinguished Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Duke University.
  • Leveraging multiomics tools to understand mechanisms of CKD
• 2:10PM: Christopher S. Cooper, MD, FACS, FAAP - Professor and Vice Chairman of Urology, University of Iowa; Director of the Pediatric Urology Division at Children’s Hospital.
  • Improved predictive factors of clinical outcomes in children with vesicoureteral reflux
• 2:25PM: Jonathan Routh MD, MPH, FAAP - Chief of Children’s Surgery and the Paul H. Sherman Distinguished Associate Professor of Surgery, Pediatrics, and Population Health Sciences, Duke University
  • Current controversies and challenges in pediatric vesicoureteral reflux
• 2:40PM: Maryellen Kelly, MSN, DNP, MHS - Assistant Research Professor, School of Nursing, Duke University.
  • Kids, don’t drink the pee!
• 2:55PM: Moderated discussion

3:15PM: TRAINEE PLATFORM PRESENTATIONS (Awardees and select KURe Scholars)

4:15PM: PRESENTATION OF TRAINEE AWARDS AND CLOSING REMARKS

4:30PM: Adjournment

Clinical Associate Professor
Kidney and Urinary Tract Center
Nationwide Children’s Hospital

Dr. Ching is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatric Urology. She received her medical degree from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and completed her urology residency at Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, OH. She then went on to complete a two-year fellowship in Pediatric Urology at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. Dr. Ching is interested in all aspects of urologic problems in children including urinary tract infections, hydronephrosis, urinary incontinence, hypospadias, kidney stones, ureteral reflux, spina bifida, and other complex pelvic and urinary conditions. She is trained in minimally invasive techniques of surgery as well as open. She has a strong interest in translational research and specifically how mechanisms of urothelial development and renewal are important in diagnosing, treating, and even preventing urothelial injury such as infection. Dr. Ching has an NIDDK-supported K08 award looking at the role of IL-6 signaling in UTI susceptibility.

Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education
The University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine

Dr. Cooper is Professor and Vice Chairman of Urology at the University of Iowa, Iowa City and serves as Director of the Pediatric Urology Division at the Children’s Hospital. In addition, he has served as the Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education in the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine since 2006.  Dr Cooper graduated from the University of Iowa College of Medicine and completed a two-year pediatric urology fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  His clinical research interests include vesicoureteral reflux (VUR), bowel and bladder dysfunction, neurogenic bladder, and hydronephrosis. In 2019, Dr. Cooper received the Societies for Pediatric Urology Clinical Research Prize for developing and patenting devices for home use in patients with neurogenic bladder that attach to a catheter to record bladder pressure and volume with intermittent catheterization.  In 2022, the Urology Care Foundation of the American Urological Association recognized Dr. Cooper's career-long research contributions "to enhancing the treatment of children suffering with urologic conditions and improving their quality of life" with the John W. Duckett, Jr., MD, Pediatric Urology Research Excellence Award.

Wilburt C. Davison Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics
Associate Dean for Physician Scientist Development
Duke University School of Medicine

Dr. Gbadegesin is the Wilburt C. Davison Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics and Professor in Medicine at the Duke University, Durham, NC. He is the Associate Dean for Physician Scientist Development and the Director of the Office of Physician Scientist Development. Dr. Gbadegesin’s research is focused on understanding the molecular pathogenesis of nephrotic syndrome, and the biologic basis for disparity in its incidence, and therapy response.  Nephrotic syndrome and other chronic kidney diseases has profound life-long consequences on a growing child and the therapy resistant type is a leading cause of mortality world-wide. In the last fifteen years, Dr. Gbadegesin and his team have identified at least ten new genetic causes and genetic risk factors for nephrotic syndrome and other chronic kidney diseases. In addition, he and his collaborators have continued to characterize the mechanisms by which these genes can cause nephrotic syndrome, and recently identified biomarkers of disease, and druggable pathways that may treat these genetic defects and the more common idiopathic nephrotic syndrome.

Assistant Professor, Division of Healthcare of Women and Children Duke University School of Nursing
Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, Duke Health

Dr. Kelly is an Assistant Professor at Duke University and has been a pediatric nurse practitioner in urology since 2010. She obtained her MSN from Columbia University, Masters in health science clinical research from Duke University, and her DNP from the Univ of Pittsburgh. Currently, she is funded by the NIH’s NIDDK and NICHD centers, as well as the CDC for ongoing clinical and translational research related to spina bifida care and lower urinary tract conditions in children, namely overactive bladder, urinary tract infections, neurogenic bladder, and bowel. She is a manuscript reviewer for 8 journals and has over 20 publications. She sits on the Research Advisory Council for the Spina Bifida Association, is an Executive Board Member of the Pediatric Urology Nurses and Specialists Society (PUNS), and represents PUNS as an Editor for the Journal of Pediatric Urology.

Assistant Professor
Dept. of Cell Biology and Physiology
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Dr. O’Brien obtained her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a research emphasis on basic mechanisms of cell division. With an evolving interest in developmental biology, she then began her postdoctoral studies at Harvard and subsequently the University of Southern California where she investigated several aspects of renal development. This included the regulation of nephron progenitor cells during fetal development and how they differentiate into cells of the nephron such as podocytes. Dr. O’Brien’s current lab at UNC-Chapel Hill continues to interrogate processes of kidney development such as vascularization and innervation of the kidney, how nephron progenitors transform into Wilms tumor, and the unique cell biology of podocytes. 

Chief, Duke Center for Children’s Surgery
Paul H. Sherman Distinguished Associate Professor of Surgery
Associate Professor in Pediatrics
Associate Professor in Population Health Sciences
Division of Urology, Duke University School of Medicine

Dr. Routh is a pediatric urologist and health services researcher at Duke University School of Medicine, where he serves as the Chief of Children’s Surgery and the Paul H. Sherman Distinguished Associate Professor (with Tenure) of Surgery, Pediatrics, and Population Health Sciences. His clinical & research interests include optimizing surgical and non-surgical management for children with vesicoureteral reflux, neurogenic bladder, disorders of sex development, and pediatric urologic oncology.

Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health
University of Pittsburgh, School of Public Health

Dr. Sanders is an environmental health scientist with a background in engineering and environmental molecular epidemiology. Her research program examines how toxic chemical exposures and their mixtures alter early life kidney dysfunction in population-based studies. Dr. Sanders earned her PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed postdoctoral work at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She is PI of an R00 award at the University of Pittsburgh and has founded and directed training and education programs for postdoctoral fellows, pre-graduates and 5^th graders interested in science. Her research employs molecular epidemiology, toxicological, and computational approaches to investigate the effects of environmental exposures and their mixtures that may predispose susceptible populations including pregnant women and children to poor kidney function, chronic kidney disease (CKD) or CKD of unknown origin (CKDu).

Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Associate Vice Chair of Education
University of Pittsburgh

Dr. Sims-Lucas is a basic research scientist. He is trained as an anatomist and developmental biologist. His research focuses on the formation of the kidney and the role of maternal stresses (including diabetes and malnutrition) on the formation of the kidney. Furthermore, his program focuses on acute kidney injury as well as the mechanisms that lead to predisposition to injury. The long-term goal of Dr. Sims-Lucas' research relates to the development of therapeutics to mitigate acute kidney injury. He has authored more than 70 publications and has an NIH R01 funded research program. He has a passion for education and is Associate Vice Chair of Education at the Rangos Research Center and is integral in all levels of training including high school students, undergraduate students, graduate students and post-docs. Finally, he is the Director of the Histology Core at the John G. Rangos Sr. Research Center.