Rujun Gong Lab

The long-term research interests of the Gong Lab focus on understanding the pathogenesis of acute and chronic kidney diseases and developing novel therapies. More specifically, the recent efforts of this research team focus on deciphering the roles of the melanocortinergic signaling pathway and the glycogen synthase kinase 3b (GSK3b) signaling pathway in nephrotic glomerular diseases. Other ongoing research studies of the Gong Lab focus on deciphering the mechanisms responsible for acute and chronic injury, repair and regeneration of solid organs, including the kidney, liver and heart. In addition, this research team is also interested in the pathogenic mechanisms of kidney fibrogenesis and inflammation as well as epistasis in common kidney diseases, immunopathogenesis of autoimmune kidney diseases, like lupus nephritis, and immune tolerance in kidney transplantation.

 Lab Members 

• Bryce Flickinger, Visiting Student
• Minglei Lu, MD, Research Fellow
• Bohan Chen, MD, Research Fellow
• Snehal Shrivastava, MD, Nephrology Fellow
• Anshul Fnu, MD, Nephrology Fellow
• James Shaffner, MD, Nephrology Fellow
• Yudong Fang, MD, Research Fellow
• Xuejing Guan, MD, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTED IN NEWS MEDIA

• New Biomarker could Better Predict Diabetic Kidney Disease
• Mood Stabilizing Drug May Help Treat Acute Kidney Injury
• Lithium May Help Treat Acute Kidney Injury
• Bipolar Drug May Help to Treat Acute Kidney Injury
• Could Lithium Help Treat Acute Kidney Injury?

APPROACHES

• Gene cloning, transfection, expression, knockout, genotyping, microRNA analysis, immunoblotting, immunoprecipitation, immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry and light/fluorescence/confocal microscopy, Mass spectrometry imaging.
• In vitro, in vivo, ex vivo and in silico experimental models, transgenic gene knockout/over-expression mice.
• Pre-Clinical models of diverse kidney, liver and heart diseases, glomerular diseases, diabetes, lupus, sepsis, etc.
• Meta-analysis, receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, Kaplan-Meier analysis