ROCKVILLE, Md., March 25, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The American Kidney Fund (AKF) is pleased to announce Dr. Momen Abbasi and Dr. Api Chewcharat as the recipients of this year’s Clinical Scientist in Nephrology (CSN) fellowship program.
Dr. Abbasi, a nephrology fellow at the University of Illinois Chicago, is working on developing and testing non-invasive ways to assess kidney damage using advanced imaging techniques so that patients who are at a higher risk of worsening kidney function can be identified. Dr. Chewcharat, a nephrology fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is studying whether biomarkers can be used to detect thrombotic microangiopathy (TA-TMA), a serious complication that can occur after a stem cell transplant and may severely damage the kidneys, as well as the possibility of creating a predictive tool to assess which patients with TA-TMA are at high risk of requiring dialysis and/or death.
Dr. Abbasi and Dr. Chewcharat are the latest additions to a list of more than 50 talented nephrology scholars who have received early-career support from AKF through the Clinical Scientist in Nephrology Program, which launched in 1989. Dr. Abbasi and Dr. Chewcharat’s fellowships are funded by generous grants from Akebia Therapeutics and an anonymous donor.
CSN fellows work to improve diagnosis, treatment and outcomes for people living with kidney disease while receiving advanced training in essential skills such as medical ethics, biostatistics and epidemiology. The program has funded some of nephrology’s brightest scholars who have gone on to become leaders in the field and mentors to new generations of scientists studying kidney disease.
“AKF is proud to play a role in advancing innovation and discovery in kidney disease as well as encouraging more talented investigators into this field through our commitment to the Clinical Scientist in Nephrology Program” said LaVarne A. Burton, AKF President and CEO. “We look forward to seeing the results of Dr. Abbasi and Dr. Chewcharat’s important work that aims to improve diagnostics and clinical care of people living with kidney disease.”
“Akebia is committed to bettering the lives of people with kidney disease and we share in AKF’s support of innovation,” said John Butler, Chief Executive Officer, Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. “We are pleased to once again support the Clinical Scientist in Nephrology program, which gives bright up-and-coming nephrology researchers the funding they need to execute their important work on behalf of the kidney community.”
Dr. Abbasi’s research will use artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze imaging data from kidney Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scans in people with kidney disease. In doing so, he hopes to identify specific patterns in kidney disease that can help predict which patients are at higher risk of worsening kidney function. This could aid in developing new treatments and potentially provide a safer alternative to kidney biopsies, which pose significant bleeding risks.
“I am honored to receive the AKF fellowship, and I am grateful for their support. While imaging has transformed risk assessment, disease surveillance, and drug development in many fields of medicine, the potential in nephrology remains underexplored,” said Dr. Abbasi. “Through this project, I aim to leverage machine learning approaches to analyze kidney functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) to develop imaging sub-phenotypes of kidney health. I hope this work will help identify high-risk patients with CKD who may benefit from targeted clinical trials that incorporate the use of non-invasive imaging modalities.”
In his research, Dr. Chewcharat will examine blood samples from patients who did and did not have TA-TMA to identify if certain biomarkers can serve as early warning signals for TA-TMA. He will also create a scoring tool to help clinicians determine which patients with TA-TMA are at high risk of needing dialysis or death. The goal of Dr. Chewcharat’s research is to facilitate earlier diagnosis of TA-TMA and deliver an accurate risk assessment for patients with TA-TMA to reduce adverse outcomes and improve their quality of life.
"My research is dedicated to transforming the clinical landscape of transplant-associated thrombotic microangiopathy (TA-TMA), a devastating yet under-recognized complication of stem cell transplantation that leads to severe kidney injury and high mortality,” said. Dr Chewcharat. “By developing an innovative, biomarker-driven early diagnostic strategy and a personalized risk prediction tool, I aim to identify TA-TMA before irreversible organ damage occurs and tailor interventions to mitigate the risk for dialysis or mortality and ultimately improve patients' quality of life. AKF's CSN program will provide me with the resources and collaborative network needed to bring this transformative research to clinical practice bridging key knowledge gaps in TA-TMA."
Dr. Abbasi is a nephrology fellow at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at UIC. He earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Jordan and completed his residency and nephrology fellowship at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem.
Dr. Chewcharat is a nephrology fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Massachusetts General Hospital combined program. He earned a Master of Public Health in biostatistics and epidemiology from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health before completing his internal medicine residency at Mount Auburn Hospital/Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on kidney disease and cancer.
About the American Kidney Fund
The American Kidney Fund (AKF) fights kidney disease on all fronts as the nonprofit with the greatest direct impact on people with kidney disease. AKF works on behalf of 1 in 7 Americans living with kidney disease, and the millions more at risk, with an unmatched scope of programs that support people wherever they are in their fight against kidney disease—from prevention through transplant. AKF fights for kidney health for all through programs that address early detection, disease management, financial assistance, clinical research, innovation and advocacy. AKF is one of the nation’s top-rated nonprofits, investing 97 cents of every donated dollar in programs, and it has received 24 consecutive 4-Star ratings from Charity Navigator as well as the Platinum Seal of Transparency from Candid, formerly known as GuideStar.
For more information, please visit KidneyFund.org, or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Nancy Gregory American Kidney Fund (240) 292-7077 ngregory@kidneyfund.org
