‘Back and forth’ from models to patients to understand kidney disease: an interview with Katalin Susztak

Katalin Susztak is currently Associate Professor at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where she conducts research on chronic and diabetic kidney disease. After her medical studies, her science career began by investigating ion-channel regulation and function at Semmelweis University, in Budapest. She then moved to the United States, where, thanks to the fortunate encounter with her future mentor, Erwin Böttinger, she worked as a research fellow in the Renal Division of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. Since then, she has successfully kept pursuing her career in the field of kidney research. The innovative approach of Katalin’s lab is to combine efficient high-throughput analysis of patient samples with mechanistic approaches in animal models, in order to advance our understanding of kidney disease mechanisms and identify new therapeutic targets. In this interview, Katalin travels through her career, from her first steps into biophysics, to her residency and finally to her established position as a kidney-specialist scientist, discussing exciting aspects of her work and current challenges in her field.