Professional Bio
Craig R. Brooks, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He is a member of the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology. He is also a member of the Vanderbilt Center for Kidney Diseases.
Dr. Brooks received his PhD from the Medical College of Georgia in the laboratory of Dr. Zheng Dong. He completed his post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Joseph Bonventre at Brigham and Woman's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Brooks is currently an editorial fellow at the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. Dr. Brooks' NIH funded laboratory focused on kidney disease.
It is estimated that kidney disease affects over 10% of the world's population, ~800 million people, and this number is expected to increase dramatically in the next 10-20 years. The overall goal of Dr. Brooks' research is to delineate the molecular mechanisms of injury and death to some of the kidney's most sensitive cells, proximal tubule epithelial cells, and identify strategies to promote survival and regeneration.
To this end, Dr. Brooks' research focuses on three main areas: 1) Mitochondrial regulation of cell death. He was the first to demonstrate pathological mitochondrial fragmentation in PTCs during kidney injury, leading to cell death, and demonstrate the therapeutic potential of inhibiting mitochondrial fragmentation using small molecule inhibitors. His current work extends these findings by demonstrating how mitochondrial injury occurs in kidney injury and using novel microscopy techniques to analyze mitochondrial damage in kidney tissue. 2) Mechanisms of chronic kidney disease progression. Dr. Brooks' lab has identified novel cell cycle regulators that shift proximal tubule cells to an earlier differentiation state. Targeting these dedifferentiated cells can prevent the progression of acute kidney injury to chronic kidney disease. 3) Epithelial cell regulation of the immune response to kidney injury. Dr. Brooks has demonstrated that injured proximal tubule cells take on many characteristics of immune cells, including phagocytosis, MHC presentation, and secretion of cytokines.
Ongoing research is aimed at modulating these epithelial cell immune responses to prevent or reduce acute kidney injury. These studies can help identify potential therapeutic targets to treat acute kidney injury and prevent chronic kidney disease.
Publications
Education
PhD - Cell Biology & Anatomy - Medical College of Georgia, 2008
Fellowship - Post Doc Renal Div - Harvard University, 2010
Fellowship - NIH Research - Harvard University, 2013
Contact
Email
Kimryn.Rathmell@Vumc.Org
Address
777 Preston Research Building
2220 Pierce Ave
Nashville, TN 37232-6307