Lecture, Research

Distinguished Scientist Seminar Series featuring Robert Star, MD – “Devising a strategy to treat sepsis and sepsis-associated acute kidney injury”

Name: Distinguished Scientist Seminar Series featuring Robert Star, MD – “Devising a strategy to treat sepsis and sepsis-associated acute kidney injury”
Start: 2023-03-21T16:00:00-04:00
End: 2023-03-21T17:00:00-04:00
Location: Hybrid – New Research Building Auditorium & via Zoom

Rescheduled from March 9th

Distinguished Scientist Seminar Series

Robert Star, MD
Director, Renal Diagnostics and Therapeutics Unit, Kidney Disease Branch (Intramural)
Director, Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Disorders (Extramural)
NIDDK, NIH

Title & Abstract:

“Devising a strategy to treat sepsis and sepsis-associated acute kidney injury”

Sepsis is a deadly, complex, and heterogeneous disorder. Acute kidney injury (AKI) following sepsis portends an even higher mortality. Sepsis is in the graveyard of pharmacologic therapies, perhaps because previous clinical trials were not properly targeted. We hypothesize that a precision medicine strategy is needed. We have recently found that overproduction of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and reactive oxygen species (mtROS) are potential markers and mediators of sepsis and sepsis-induced AKI. BAM15, a chemical uncoupler that dissipates mitochondrial proton gradients and paradoxically reduces mtROS, is an effective preventive and therapeutic (12 hr delay) candidate in experimental sepsis. BAM15 and mtDNA form a drug-companion diagnostic/drug efficacy pair for clinical sepsis, that are mechanistically linked via mtROS, and may form the basis for a precision medicine approach to sepsis and sepsis AKI.