Kenneth Ataga
University of Tennessee Health Science Center, TN·Medicine & Clinical Research
Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an inherited blood disorder that damages blood vessels throughout the body and harms many organs, including the kidneys. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is common in SCD.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Computer Science
Public Health & Epidemiology
- Topics
sickle cell disease
sickle cell anemia
chronic kidney disease
- Grants
- 1 known grant, last ended Aug 2026
What they work on
- Build a machine learning model that predicts chronic kidney disease progression in adults with sickle cell disease, using data from a prospective, multicenter study.
- Test whether voxelotor, a drug that changes sickle hemoglobin's oxygen binding and helps red blood cells survive longer, reduces albuminuria (protein leaking into urine) in adults with SCD who have persistent albuminuria.
- Evaluate whether voxelotor slows rapid decline in kidney function and CKD progression in SCD patients predicted to be at high risk, consistent with the idea that reducing hemolysis limits injury to the kidney's filters.
More about the research
Kidney function declines faster in people with SCD than in the general African American population, and rapid decline is about three times more common. Any kidney disease, and any rapid fall in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), a standard measure of how well the kidneys filter blood, is linked to higher death rates. Treatments are limited. Drugs that reduce albuminuria, protein leaking into the urine as an early sign of kidney damage, have not been shown to slow long-term kidney loss in SCD. Spotting high-risk patients early could allow doctors to act sooner.
Why it matters
Kidney disease is a common and deadly complication for adults with sickle cell disease. A machine-learning tool that predicts who is likely to lose kidney function quickly could help doctors find these patients earlier, address risk factors they can change, and start targeted treatment. Testing whether voxelotor protects the kidneys could point to a way to slow kidney disease and possibly extend life expectancy in this group.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Enrico Novelli
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Determine whether hemin, a toxic breakdown product of hemoglobin, and hypoxia (low oxygen) trigger VLA-4-driven blood-cell stickiness in sickle cell mice, measured by PET imaging with the tracer 64Cu-LLP2A.
Charity Oyedeji
Duke University, NC·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Evaluate the validity and reliability of the Sickle Cell Disease Functional Assessment (SCD-FA) in a prospective cohort of adults with sickle cell disease.
Roderick Tan
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Medicine & Clinical Research
Measure how the activity of renal nerves changes across different forms of chronic kidney disease, using several mouse models of CKD.
The school
University of Tennessee Health Science Center: 4 labs on PI Pages, $125M a year on research, 197 research doctorates a year.
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