Charles Alpers MD

UW Laboratory Medicine and Pathology
Professor and Interim Chair

Email: calp@uw.edu | Phone: 206.598.6400

Our research involves studies of kidney disease consequent to immune responses to foreign pathogens and as a consequence of diabetes. Our studies in diabetic kidney disease in particular have focused on the possibility of reversal of such injuries. Some kidney cell types (podocytes) have been shown to have very limited ability to regenerate after injury and these cells are clearly lost during the evolution of diabetic kidney disease, yet we have shown in mouse models that it is possible for reversal of diabetic kidney disease. Therefore, our studies have also focused on identification of cells that may contribute to regeneration of podocytes and normal kidney structures, and how such cells may be recruited into damaged kidneys to enable repair and injury reversal.