Project Title: Investigation of the role of IGFBP-1 in a murine model of acute kidney injury
Joseph Hunter Holthoff M.D. Ph.D. will be joining the College of Medicine as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nephrology on July 1^st.  The KL2 Mentored Research Career Development Award will support his efforts to identify novel therapeutic targets for acute kidney injury.
Acute kidney injury is defined as a rise in serum creatinine or a decrease in urine output.  It effects 10-20% of hospitalized patients and is associated with increased mortality.  Among patients that develop severe kidney injury and require renal replacement therapy, the mortality rate approaches 50%.  Despite decades of research and clinical trials, there are still no specific treatments for acute kidney injury.  The lack of therapies result from a poor understanding of the mechanisms of acute kidney injury.  Recently, specific molecular biomarkers of acute kidney injury have been identified and hold great promise for the discovery of novel therapeutic targets for acute kidney injury.  During his KL2 Mentored Research Career Development Award, Dr. Holthoff will investigate the role of a protein,Insulin-Like Growth Factor Binding Protein 1 (IGFBP-1), which is significantly increased in the urine of patients that develop acute kidney injury following cardiothoracic surgery.  The goal of these studies is to reveal new therapeutic targets to treat acute kidney injury which can be translated from his animal model to clinical therapies.
Dr. Holthoff completed the combined M.D./Ph.D. program at UAMS in 2014.  He then completed a combined internal medicine and pediatrics residency at UAMS in 2018.  He served as internal medicine chief resident from 2018-2019 and will finish his nephrology clinical fellowship in June 2021 at UAMS.  He will join the College of Medicine as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Nephrology on July 1^st.
 
Mentors:
John Arthur M.D. Ph.D., Professor and Chief of Division of Nephrology, Department of Internal Medicine, UAMS
Luis Juncos M.D. Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine in the Division of Nephrology at UAMS and Director of Nephrology at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System
Rick Edmondson Ph.D., Associate Professor in the College of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Shree Sharma M.D., Nephropathologist and Laboratory Director, Arkana Laboratories

Project Title: A pilot study of developing T cell-based cancer immunotherapies for African American and Hispanic populations
Yong-Chen “William” Lu, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology in the UAMS College of Medicine and a Member in the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute. The KL2 Mentored Research Career Development Award will support his research in developing T cell-based cancer immunotherapies for African American and Hispanic populations.
In recent clinical trials, T cell-based cancer immunotherapies have shown strong clinical responses for patients with cancer. Patients who experience complete, durable responses are likely cancer free. One of the major requirements for this new type of treatment is that only patients with certain types of human leukocyte antigens (HLAs) are qualified. However, the majority of previous studies have been focused on common HLAs for the Caucasian population. As a result, cancer patients within the African American and Hispanic populations are far less likely to qualify for these treatments in the near future. To address this, he plans to focus on the development of new T cell-based immunotherapies specifically for the African American and Hispanic populations. These efforts will potentially bring new treatments for cancer patients from underserved populations. Furthermore, the knowledge and research tools obtained from this study can also apply to other types of immune-related treatments for the underserved populations, such as treatments for infectious diseases and autoimmune diseases.
Dr. Lu joined the UAMS as a new faculty member in 2021. He received his Ph.D. training at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University of Toronto, Canada. After finishing his Ph.D. training in 2009, he became a postdoctoral visiting fellow at Surgery Branch, National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH). He was promoted to a research fellow position in 2014 and a staff scientist position in 2016, prior to joining the UAMS.
Mentors:
Mayumi Nakagawa, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Department of Pathology, UAMS College of Medicine; Co-leader, Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences Program, Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute; Drs. Mae and Anderson Nettleship Endowed Chair in Oncologic Pathology.
Terry Harville, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Department of Pathology, Laboratory Services and Internal Medicine, UAMS College of Medicine; Medical Director, Histocompatibility, Immunogenetics and Transplantation Laboratory.
Steven Post, Ph.D., Professor and Vice Chair for Research, Department of Pathology, UAMS College of Medicine; Director, UAMS Tissue Biorepository and Procurement Service; Director, UAMS Experimental Pathology Research Core.
Alan J. Tackett, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, UAMS College of Medicine; Deputy Director, Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute; Scharlau Family Endowed Chair of Cancer Research; Director, Center for Translational Pediatric Research; Director, NIH IDeA National Resource for Proteomics.