Qandeel Soomro
New York University, NY·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
People with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have a high risk of heart disease and death from cardiovascular causes. One suspected link is the autonomic nervous system (ANS), the part of the nervous system that controls heart rate and blood pressure without conscious effort through two branches: the sympathetic ("fight or flight") and parasympathetic ("rest and digest") systems.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Physiology
Neuroscience
- Topics
chronic kidney disease
nephrology
autonomic nervous system
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Nov 2029
What they work on
- Deeply profile autonomic nervous system dysfunction across stages of chronic kidney disease using a comprehensive battery of autonomic tests, both cross-sectionally and over time, to test whether dysfunction shifts from parasympathetic to sympathetic as CKD advances.
- Quantify the link between inflammation and autonomic dysfunction in patients with chronic kidney disease, using causal inference methods to test whether inflammation is a key driver.
- Run a pilot trial of trans-auricular vagal nerve stimulation, a non-invasive stimulation of the vagus nerve through the ear, to assess feasibility, safety and early effects on autonomic function in CKD.
More about the research
Earlier studies in CKD looked mostly at sympathetic overactivity, relied on heart rate variability alone, did not fully account for diabetes, were small, and focused on patients already on dialysis. This leaves the causes and pattern of ANS problems in CKD unclear.
Why it matters
Millions of people with chronic kidney disease face high rates of cardiovascular illness and death. Better characterizing autonomic dysfunction could improve how it is diagnosed in these patients, and pilot data on ear-based vagal nerve stimulation may support larger trials of a new therapy that could improve heart outcomes in this vulnerable group.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jeanie Park
Emory University, GA·Physiology
Test whether eight weeks of mindfulness-based stress reduction produces sustained reductions in muscle sympathetic nerve activity, recorded by microneurography, that are linked to lower daytime blood pressure and restored nighttime blood pressure dipping in patients with chronic kidney 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.
Melanie Weltman
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Identify what would help nephrology clinics prescribe guideline-recommended heart- and kidney-protective drugs, such as SGLT2 inhibitors and statins, by interviewing clinic stakeholders using qualitative methods.
The school
New York University: 72 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 540 research doctorates a year.
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