Dr. R. Todd Alexander

Award: KRESCENT New Investigator Award
Institution: University of Alberta
Year: 2009-2012

Lay Summary

R. Todd Alexander is a new investigator at the University of Alberta and a pediatric nephrologist at the Stollery Children's Hospital. In 2007, he completed his PhD in Cell Physiology at the Hospital for Sick Children, followed by a KRESCENT Post-Doctoral Fellowship at St. Radboud University (Nijmegen, the Netherlands) under the supervision of Dr. René Bindels. His research aims to understand how calcium, once it has been filtered by the glomerulus (the filtration unit of the kidney) is reabsorbed back into the blood by the proximal tubule, a section of the kidney responsible for the reabsortion of the majority of necessary ions, minerals, vitamins, proteins etc. The molecular details of renal calcium regulation will provide novel insight into renal calcium wasting and its consequences: kidney stones and osteoporosis. Through these insights, he intends to help generate new therapies for these disorders.