Dr. Susan Quaggin 
INVESTIGATOR

More than 30,000 Canadians suffer from kidney failure and require dialysis or a transplant to stay alive. Millions more have related conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure, which are the leading causes of kidney failure.

Widely regarded as one of the most dynamic and innovative physician-scientists in the field of nephrology, Dr. Susan Quaggin is working to find innovative methods to halt the progression of kidney disease. As a physician, Dr. Quaggin knows the devastation of the disease first hand – seeing her own patients succumb to end-stage kidney disease at a survival rate of only 55 per cent. As a researcher in the Centre for Genomics Medicine at the Lunenfeld Institute, she is working to better understand kidney function – and dysfunction – in order to improve diagnosis and treatment of kidney disease.   

Dr. Quaggin’s research has already resulted in the discovery of a gene critical for kidney, heart and lung development. She is now using that gene to study the development of kidneys, in particular the development of microscopic kidney filters, called glomeruli. Each kidney is composed of about 1 million glomeruli whose function is to remove waste and excess fluids from the blood. Dr. Quaggin’s research is focused on glomerulosclerosis – scarring of these filters – damage that is commonly caused by diabetes and ultimately leads to kidney failure. Dr. Quaggin believes that a better understanding of this process will be critical in the prevention and development of new treatments for kidney disease.