Susan Quaggin, MD
Professor, Medicine
Research Program
Cancer-Focused Research
I am a physician-scientist with a translational research lab, Director of the Feinberg Cardiovascular and Renal Research Institute and Chief of the Division of Nephrology/Hypertension at Northwestern University. The research in my lab over the past 22 years has focused on the role of vascular signaling pathways in the development and maintenance of specialized vascular beds in the kidney and eye. We identified a critical role of VEGFA/VEGFR2 signaling for glomerular microvascular health and showed that loss of signaling through this pathway results in thrombotic injury to the glomerular microvasculature in both rodents and patients. In recent years, we have focused on the Angpt- Tie2/TEK receptor tyrosine kinase signaling pathway, which is known for its ‘gatekeeper' functions in the vasculature.