Research will focus on hypertensive disorders of pregnancy in young women with a history of acute kidney injury

ROCKVILLE, MD, UNITED STATES, July 13, 2017 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Jessica Sheehan Tangren, M.D., a third-year fellow in the Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Massachusetts General Joint Nephrology Fellowship Program, has been named the American Kidney Fund (AKF) 2017-2018 Clinical Scientist in Nephrology (CSN) fellow, receiving a grant to fund her research that seeks to improve treatment and outcomes for pregnant women with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and a history of acute kidney injury (AKI).

Dr. Tangren’s research will help nephrologists better understand renal physiology in pregnant women with the ultimate goal of improving the treatment of complex pregnancies in women with preexisting kidney disease. It will build upon her groundbreaking recent finding that women with a history of AKI are at high risk to develop preeclampsia during their pregnancies and will explore the long-term effects of AKI specifically in young women—an area where very little research has been done.

Dr. Tangren is a graduate of Stanford University and attended the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She completed her internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and was soon accepted into hospital’s joint program with Massachusetts General. She is enrolled in the T. H. Chan Harvard School of Public Health, working toward a Master of Public Health degree in clinical effectiveness, and spends several months a year working in obstetric nephrology care and clinical research at Toronto General Hospital.

“Profound changes in renal circulation during pregnancy act as a renal stress test, making pregnancy a unique window to study renal pathophysiology,” Dr. Tangren said. “This research will give us valuable information that may help us develop targeted preventive strategies to forestall the future development of preeclampsia and CKD in young women.” Dr. Tangren’s AKF Clinical Scientist in Nephrology fellowship began July 1 and is funded in part by a grant from Amgen.

The CSN program strives to improve the quality of care provided to kidney patients and promotes clinical research in nephrology. It enhances the training of nephrologists who want to pursue an academic career and whose primary professional commitment is to scholarship in the provision of patient care. Dr. Tangren joins a distinguished list of CSN fellows whose work in nephrology research has been advancing patient care since 1989.

“Supporting promising clinical research to improve the care and treatment of kidney patients has been the foundation of the American Kidney Fund’s Clinical Scientist in Nephrology program since it was established almost 30 years ago,” said LaVarne A. Burton, president and CEO of the American Kidney Fund. “Young researchers like Dr. Tangren are vital to the ability of the kidney care community to advance the science and care of people living with kidney disease.”

For more information about the American Kidney Fund and the CSN program, visit www.kidneyfund.org.

About the American Kidney Fund
As the nation’s leading nonprofit working on behalf of the 31 million Americans with kidney disease, the American Kidney Fund is dedicated to ensuring that every kidney patient has access to health care, and that every person at risk for kidney disease is empowered to prevent it. AKF provides a complete spectrum of programs and services: prevention outreach, top-rated health educational resources, and direct financial assistance enabling 1 in 5 U.S. dialysis patients to access lifesaving medical care, including dialysis and transplantation.

For more information, please visit www.kidneyfund.org, or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Alice Andors
American Kidney Fund
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