Subhashini Bolisetty, PhD

Bridge Grant Pilot Program

Institution: University of Alabama at Birmingham

How would you sum up your overall research focus in one sentence?

Why do some kidneys get severely injured while others don't, and why do some recover after injury while others don't.

Provide a brief overview of the research project you will conduct with help from the grant.

Our lab has discovered that a specific population of immune cells, carrying a protein called ferritin, drives a heightened inflammatory response that derails kidney recovery and promotes the transition to chronic kidney disease. With KidneyCure's support, we will dissect this mechanism at the molecular level, identify the precise signaling pathways involved, and lay the groundwork for therapies that can interrupt this destructive process to prevent disease progression.

What inspired you to focus your work in this area?

Two things came together for me early in my career: a curiosity about the molecular mechanisms underlying cell injury and survival, and mentors who channeled that curiosity toward kidney disease, a field still lacking effective treatments. This combination was impossible to walk away from.

What impact do you hope your research will have on people with kidney diseases?

We want to change the trajectory for AKI survivors. Right now, too many patients walk out of the hospital after a kidney injury only to find themselves on a slow path toward dialysis. Our goal is to identify effective, targetable therapies for AKI and to prevent disease progression, giving patients a real chance at full recovery.

What has surprised you most about your career?

That some of the most important moments in my career happened when an experiment didn't go as planned. A result that looked like a failure turned out to be the discovery we didn't know we were looking for. Learning to stay curious about the surprises, rather than treating them as setbacks, has changed how I do science.

What are the major challenges facing nephrology research today?

We are fighting on multiple fronts: AKI is detected too late, mechanisms underpinning maladaptive repair are still poorly understood, and targeted therapies are almost nonexistent. Meanwhile, funding for such complex, mechanistic research is scarce. We need the scientific community, clinical partners, and philanthropic funders to work together to bridge the gaps in how we detect, understand, and treat AKI.

In one sentence, please describe the importance of having grant funding available through KidneyCure.

KidneyCure funding is essential to sustaining the kind of rigorous, mechanism-focused kidney research that bridges scientific discovery and clinical impact.

Something you may not know about me is…

I am fascinated by how cultures develop. Not just the food and the architecture, but the deeper history of its traditions and why a society became what it is. So often, what strikes me most is not how different cultures are, but how much they share.

In my free time I like to…

Travel with my family and friends, explore different cuisines, and try to understand a new place through its traditions.