Dr. Darren Yuen

Award: KRESCENT New Investigator Award
Institution: St. Michael's Hospital
Year: 2013-2016

Lay Summary

Dr. Darren Yuen is a new investigator at the University of Toronto where he obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. in the Faculty of Medicine. He previously held a KRESCENT Post-Doctoral Fellowship (2008-2011). His current study targets the actin cytoskeleton to treat kidney disease. It is aimed at developing and testing new therapies on the areas of change occurring in kidney cells at different stages following injury.

The cytoskeleton is a protein skeleton contained within a cell that determines its shape, motion and behavior. It plays an important role in kidney injury. For instance, the cytoskeleton of kidney endothelial cells, the inner lining of the blood vessels in the kidney, help control new blood vessel growth. In the healthy kidney, blood vessel growth and death are balanced, leading to preservation of the blood vessel networks in the kidney. Following many types of kidney injury, however, this balance is disrupted, in part due to changes in the endothelial cell cytoskeleton. Similarly, the cytoskeleton of fibroblasts, the cells responsible for scar tissue production, is altered by kidney injury in ways that predispose it to irreversible scarring of the kidneys.

Dr. Yuen will examine therapies that target a previously unrecognized regulator (Slit2) of cytoskeletal changes driving the excessive kidney blood vessel growth that occurs early in diabetes, and which predisposes to later injury. These proposed studies are based on extensive preliminary data and will use cutting edge techniques established in the lab.

Findings will increase the understanding of how cytoskeleton changes in kidney cells contribute to kidney injury and will help identify safe and effective therapies that will treat and prevent chronic kidney disease. In addition, future studies will build upon this initial work, exploring therapies targeting late-stage kidney disease that help reduce scarring and preserve kidney blood vessels when they begin to die off.