Author Archives: Jill Powell

March is National Kidney Awareness Month, a time to highlight the importance of kidney disease. 37 million Americans have kidney disease, yet only about 10% of these individuals are aware of the diagnosis. Kidney disease may develop from a myriad of conditions, including hypertension, diabetes mellitus, vascular disease, nephrotoxic medications,...

Abhi Kshirsagar, MD, MPH, the Covington Distinguished Professor of Medicine in the Division of Nephrology and  Hypertension, participated in the “Controversies in optimal anemia management: Conclusions from a Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) Conference.” Controversies Conferences review the latest evidence, explore new and ongoing controversies, assess change implications for...

Christian Agosto-Burgos, a PhD candidate, was featured in Univision 40 North Carolina interviews about COVID-19. He explained to Spanish-speaking audiences how natural and vaccine-mediated immunity are different, why individuals develop the disease more than once, and why it is important to receive the two doses of the vaccine. Agosto-Burgos is...

Donna Bunch, PhD Donna Bunch’s research focuses on dissecting the role of B cells and the autoantibodies they produce in autoimmune diseases affecting the kidney. She investigates the immune dysregulation that triggers production of pathogenic autoantibodies and how these autoantibodies interact with immune cells (B cells, neutrophils, monocytes and dendritic...

Magdalene Assimon, PharmD, PhD Dr. Assimon’s current research focuses on using administrative claims data and electronic health care record (EHR) data to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of medications commonly used by maintenance dialysis patients. She hopes to translate her medication-related research findings into quality improvement initiatives and policies that...

J. Charles Jennette, MD Dr. Jennette’s current research focuses on inflammatory vascular disease (vasculitis and glomerulonephritis) caused by anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies (ANCA), which are a major cause for the most common form of aggressive glomerulonephritis and systemic small vessel vasculitis in adults. In collaboration with Dr. Hong Xiao and Dr....