Dylan Burger, Ph.D.

Award: KRESCENT New Investigator Award
Institution: Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Year: 2014-2017

Lay Summary

Dr. Burger is a new investigator at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute where he completed a KRESCENT Post-Doctoral Fellowship (2009-2012) in vascular biology under the mentorship of Dr. Rhian Touyz. Further Postdoctoral training was obtained in Dr. Kevin Burn’s laboratory in renal physiology. He obtained his Ph.D. in Physiology and Pharmacology at the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Burger’s research focuses on the role of microparticles in diabetes.

Diabetes is the primary cause of chronic kidney disease in Canada and is associated with a high mortality and significant cost to the health care system. Early detection can slow progression of the disease but at present, very few treatments exist causing a demand for new and more effective therapies for diabetic kidney disease.

The goal of this project is to examine the role of microparticles in diabetes. Cell and animal models will be used, as well as samples from diabetic patients in order to determine how microparticles are formed, whether they themselves contribute to kidney injury, and whether they can be detected in human diabetic patients. It is hypothesized that microparticles are an early sign of kidney injury in diabetes and that formation of microparticles directly contributes to the development of kidney disease in diabetes. Most drugs for individuals with kidney disease act on biological pathways that have been known for some time. However, until recently it was not known that microparticles were important in the body. If we can understand how microparticles are formed we may be able to identify new pathways for drug development.