Divisional Address

1830 E. Monument Street, Suite 416

Baltimore, MD 21205

Email: mestrel1@jhmi.edu

Phone: 410-955-5268

Fax: 410-955-0485

Education and Training

BS, Centenary College of Louisiana

MD, University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston

MHS, Graduate Training Program in Clinical Investigation, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Residency, Internal Medicine, Johns Hopkins Osler Medical Housestaff Training Program

Fellowship, Nephrology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Collexis expertise and publication web link

Research and Professional Experience

My research interests include epidemiological and translational studies focused on kidney disease and its consequences, particularly among HIV-infected individuals. In addition, I am interested in the discovery and utility of renal biomarkers in the context of several kidney diseases and in the epidemiological research of chronic kidney disease and nephrotic syndromes. My current primary projects focus on the following:

1)       Kidney disease and its consequences among HIV-infected individuals

Current projects include the study of host and viral factors that lead to the development and progression of kidney disease in HIV infection, evaluation of the utility of renal biomarkers and development of GFR-estimating equations in HIV-infected individuals, and the consequences of bone mineral disease among HIV-infected individuals.  I am actively involved in the following studies:

·         Biopsy Examination of AIDS Nephropathy (BEAN) Study, a study of HIV-related kidney disease which involves prospective collection of urine, blood, DNA, and kidney pathological  specimens among HIV-infected individuals to evaluate clinical and novel factors associated with renal histopathological findings in HIV infection and to discover potential urinary and serological biomarkers which may be used for non-invasive diagnosis and prognostication of HIV-related kidney disease

·         Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS), an ongoing multicenter, prospective study of the natural and treated histories of HIV-1 infection among homosexual and bisexual men in the U.S.

·         Women’s Interagency HIV Study (WIHS), an ongoing multicenter, prospective study of the impact of HIV infection on women in the U.S.

·         North American AIDS Cohort Collaboration on Research and Design (NA-ACCORD), an initiative of the International Epidemiologic Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA). NA-ACCORD has collected data on over 100,000 HIV-infected individuals across the U.S. and Canada

In addition, I have ongoing collaborations with the AIDS Link to Intravenous Experience (ALIVE) Study, the Johns Hopkins HIV Clinical Cohort Study, and the Stellenbosch University in South Africa to evaluate different dimensions of kidney disease in HIV infection.

2)       Role of genetics in kidney disease

My collaborators and I have ongoing projects in the MACS, WIHS, and Stellenbosch University as well as studies in transplant recipient and donors and in the Johns Hopkins site for the Family Investigation of Nephropathy and Diabetes (FIND) Study to evaluate the role of host genetics on kidney disease.

My involvement in these projects are made possible through a K23 Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the Tufts University Nutrition Collaborative – The Center for Drug Abuse and AIDS Research (TNC-CDAAR) Career Developmental Award, and the a National Kidney Foundation of Maryland Mini-Grant.

Keywords

Kidney disease, HIV research, epidemiology, genetics, MACS, WIHS, NA-ACCORD.