Kerlin Lab
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a leading cause of death in the United States and thrombotic disease (including heart attack, stroke and venous thromboembolism) is the leading cause of death in persons with kidney disease. Proteinuric glomerular diseases that result in massive urinary losses of protein (such as nephrotic syndrome) are a leading cause of CKD. The Kerlin Lab aims to discover new approaches to prevent thrombotic complications and treat kidney disease.
Its research focuses on defining the mechanisms by which glomerular disease increases thrombosis risk and discover how proteins involved in thrombosis may drive glomerular disease progression. These mechanisms are expected to inform the development of novel therapies that would simultaneously prevent both thrombotic disease and CKD progression, prevent the need for dialysis or kidney transplantation and reduce death in patients with kidney disease from thrombotic disease complications.
Meet Our Team
Bryce Kerlin, MD
Principal Investigator
Bryce.Kerlin@NationwideChildrens.org
Bryce Kerlin, MD, is a principal investigator in the Center for Clinical & Translational Research in the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital. Dr. Kerlin is also director of the Joan Fellowship in Pediatric Hemostasis-Thrombosis and an attending physician in the Division of Hematology, Oncology & Blood and Marrow Transplant at Nationwide Children's, as well as a professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.
Dr. Kerlin’s research is focused on the translational epidemiology of pediatric thrombosis, focusing on the clarification of biomarkers and clinical features linked to thrombosis, especially in pediatric kidney disease. He actively participates in clinical trials for new treatments in hemostasis and thrombosis, including new medications for hemophilia, von Willebrand disease and blood clots.
Dr. Kerlin earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue University and his medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin. He trained in Pediatrics at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and Coagulation Physiology at the Blood Research Institute (Milwaukee). Dr. Kerlin led the Hemophilia Treatment Center at Rady Children’s Hospital where he was also an assistant professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine before joining the faculty at Nationwide Children’s in 2004.
Eman Abdelghani, MD
Hematology/Oncology Fellow
Eman.Abdelghani@NationwideChildrens.org
Eman Abdelghani, MD, is a second-year hematology/oncology fellow at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Dr. Abdelghani earned her medical degree from the University of Jordan (Amman, Jordan) before completing an internship at Jordanian Royal Medical Services and a transitional residency at King Hussein Cancer Center in Jordan. She then moved to the United States to pursue training in pediatrics at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia.
During these years, Dr. Abdelghani developed deep interest in hemostasis/thrombosis and coagulation disorders in children, now her primary research focuses. In Dr. Kerlin’s lab, Dr. Abdelghani devotes her time to studying the effect of anticoagulation on glomerular disease.
Katelyn Wolfgang
Research Assistant
Katelyn.Wolfgang@NationwideChildrens.org
Katelyn joined the Kerlin Lab in 2016. She got her first bachelor’s degree in Zoo Science from Delaware Valley University before pursuing a second bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Penn State. Katelyn is currently working on developing a new method of podocyte counting in hopes that it will provide more information on how podocytes are damaged/lost in nephrotic syndrome.
Amanda Waller
Senior Research Associate
Amanda.Waller@NationwideChildrens.org
Amanda is a senior research associate and manager in the Kerlin Lab. She joined Nationwide Children’s in 2013 to study the unique interplay between pathophysiologic blood coagulation and glomerular kidney disease with the Kerlin Lab.
Amanda has a background in interdisciplinary research and received her doctorate degree in comparative physiology from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, with her graduate research focusing on muscle substrate utilization and metabolism during exercise and recovery. She completed a three-year postdoctoral fellowship at The Ohio State University, conducting translational research on the effects of insulin resistance on glucose metabolism using both small and large animal models.
One of Amanda’s favorite projects during this time was her work using a novel photolabeling method to study the activity of cell surface glucose transporters in the intact heart, for which she earned an American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship award.