Anna Greka, MD, PhD
Anna Greka, MD, PhD, of the Division of Renal Medicine, was honored by the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) with the Donald Seldin-Smith Award for Pioneering Research, which recognizes early-career physician-scientists who have demonstrated exceptional creativity and accomplishments in biomedical research.
The award, which comes with an unrestricted $30,000 grant to advance academic efforts, is named for esteemed ASCI members Donald W. Seldin, MD, and Lloyd “Holly” Smith Jr., MD, and celebrates their legacies, scientific contributions and dedicated mentorship of countless physician-scientists.
Greka’s research focuses on developing targeted treatments for kidney diseases, where there has been virtually no progress in the last 40 years. Her laboratory studies kidney podocytes, critical blood-filtering cells whose loss is responsible for progression to kidney failure. In 2013, she and her team identified TRPC5 as an important mediator of podocyte injury. In 2017, her team developed AC1903, a TRPC5-specific blocker, which protected podocytes from death and suppressed disease progression in multiple animal models of kidney disease. This discovery has formed the basis for precision therapies for kidney diseases and are now in active development.
Brigham Health President Betsy Nabel, MD, who nominated Greka for this recognition, wrote that her and her team’s latest work “has launched precision medicine for kidney disease – a long-awaited day in the field of nephrology.” Her nomination was also supported by Eric Lander, PhD, president and founding director of the Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.
Established in 1908 and now comprising more than 3,000 members, the ASCI one of the nation’s oldest and most respected medical honor societies. Its mission is to support the scientific efforts, educational needs and clinical aspirations of physician-scientists to improve human health.
