Mario Schiffer, M.D.

1)    Our research focuses on processes that disrupt the glomerulus, the small filter units of the kidney where the primary urine is generated. When the blood-urine barrier in these little filter units is disturbed, larger proteins that can not normally cross the barrier are passed in the urine, leading to severe disturbances of the body’s homeostasis. In severe cases, when this happens in humans, people develop a “nephrotic syndrome” with many secondary complications. Here at MDIBL we study the influence of gene disruptions on the integrity of the glomerular filter in larval zebrafish. Zebrafish is the perfect model organism for this research because the zebrafish kidney, the “pronephros,” is structurally and functionally very similar to mammalian kidneys. We have developed a model system to study loss of high molecular weight proteins in the urine of larval zebrafish. This model system enables us to screen novel genes not previously known to be involved in this process on a structural and functional level. Future research will enable us to use the zebrafish model to gain better understanding of glomerular kidney disease and physiology of glomerular filtration.

Recent PubMed Publications