Mayo Clinic Research Committee announces 2020 Team Science Award
The Mayo Clinic Research Committee announces the 2020 Mayo Clinic Team Science Award recipient: Mayo Clinic Robert and Billie Kelley Pirnie Translational Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) Center.
Mayo Clinic Team Science Awardees
Vicente Torres, M.D., Ph.D. (NEPH ’74, I ’77, NEPH ’79), Division of Nephrology and Hypertension; director, PKD Center
Peter Harris, Ph.D. (NEPH ’99), Division of Nephrology and Hypertension; associate director, PKD Center
Jinghua Hu, Ph.D. (BIOC ’07), Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; director, PKD Center Model Systems Core
Timothy Kline, Ph.D. (RD ’15), Department of Radiology; associate director, PKD Center Imaging Core
Fouad Chebib, M.D. (NEPH ’16), Division of Nephrology and Hypertension
Marie Hogan, M.D., Ph.D. (I ’99, NEPH ’01, MBIO ’05), Division of Nephrology and Hypertension
Maria Irazabal Mira, M.D. (NEPH ’12), Division of Nephrology and Hypertension
Xiaogang Li, Ph.D. (NEPH '18), Division of Nephrology and Hypertension
The Team Science Award recognizes team science: the unique and valuable contributions of different insights, skill sets and complementary expertise, without which the effort could not succeed.
Collaborating across specialties, the PKD Center team has played a central role over the past two decades in advancing the understanding and characterization of polycystic kidney disease, including preclinical and clinical trials.
Among the team’s achievements is bench-to-bedside research that led to FDA approval of tolvaptan as the first treatment for autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD). The team’s work has been essential in the discovery of several PKD-related genes and their variants, as well as analysis of the gene products. The Imaging Core is renowned worldwide for the development of imaging measurements and artificial intelligence techniques that have become the gold standard in measuring disease progression in ADPKD. The Model Systems Core is now working on the development and testing of second-generation medications to further slow the progression of ADPKD.
“This team of physicians and scientists has made a huge impact on the care of patients with ADPKD and has accomplished one of the most exciting examples of successful ‘bench to bedside’ research here at Mayo,” said Bernard King, M.D. (RD ’88), Department of Radiology, past president of the Mayo Clinic staff, in a statement to the selection committee.