Ariel Gomez: Transformation of the Kidney into a Neuroimmune Endocrine Organ

Ariel Gomez (Child Health Research Center Department of Pediatrics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA)

Abstract: Dr. Gomez’s laboratory studies renin-synthesizing cells and kidney vascular development. Renin cells regulate blood pressure, fluid balance, and electrolyte homeostasis, and lineage-tracing studies from his lab showed that they also give rise to multiple renal and extrarenal cell types. Current work focuses on the determinants of renin cell identity, including chromatin organization, epigenetic regulation, gene-gene interactions, and microRNAs such as miR-330 and miR-125b-5p.

His Pediatric Center of Excellence in Nephrology project investigates how the kidney vasculature develops. Using lineage tracing, conditional gene deletion, epigenetic and gene-expression profiling, and differentiation markers, his team is testing how RBP-J/Notch signaling regulates Foxd1+ and Renin+ progenitor cells and promotes formation of differentiated mural cells in renal arterioles. This work may clarify the origins and mechanisms of renal arterial development and inform future approaches to vascular and kidney disease.

Biography: Ariel Gomez received his medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine in 1975. After completing his pediatric residency and serving as Chief Resident at Hospital de Niños “Ricardo Gutierrez” in Buenos Aires, he pursued fellowships in Pediatric Nephrology at the University of Iowa and the University of California, San Francisco, where he trained in fetal physiology and pediatric nephrology. Dr. Gomez joined the University of Virginia School of Medicine in 1984 as Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and established an NIH-funded research program that has been continuously supported since 1988. He later served as Genentech Professor and Associate Chair for Research in Pediatrics, Interim Vice President for Research and Public Service, and Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies. In 2008, he returned to full-time research as Harrison Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics, with a courtesy appointment in Biology.