Zepeda-Orozco Lab
Acute kidney injury is a common disease. It increases susceptibility to further renal insults and can lead to progressive kidney damage. Currently there is no specific treatment to prevent acute kidney injury or progressive kidney disease.
The Zepeda-Orozco Lab studies the implications of tubular epithelial cells mitochondrial metabolism and oxidative stress in acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease progression. Its research is devoted to the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for prevention and targeted treatment of acute kidney injury-induced progressive kidney damage.
Its team utilizes in-vivo and in-vitro tools to disrupt mitochondrial oxidative metabolism and redox balance in tubular epithelial cells. In combination with the use of pre-clinical kidney injury models, the Zepeda-Orozco Lab is interested in discovering the mechanism regulating mitochondrial adaptation to acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease. In its models, Dr. Zepeda-Orozco’s team evaluates serum and urine kidney injury biomarkers that will facilitate development of targeted novel therapeutic approaches to prevent or ameliorate acute kidney injury and progressive kidney damage. They expect that the mechanistic studies in these models will ultimately lead testing the effects of novel mitochondrially targeted therapeutic approaches to protect individuals from acute kidney injury and progressive kidney damage.
Lab Staff
Diana Zepeda-Orozco, MD
Principal Investigator
Diana.Zepeda-Orozco@NationwideChildrens.org
Diana Zepeda-Orozco, MD, is a principal investigator and the associate division chief of research in the Kidney and Urinary Tract Research Center in the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital. She is also the co-director of the Acute Kidney Injury Program and attending physician for the Division of Pediatric Nephrology and Hypertension at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, as well as an assistant professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.
Dr. Zepeda-Orozco joined Nationwide Children’s hospital in 2020. She is interested in developing novel mitochondrial therapeutic approaches to prevent and treat kidney injury with deep understanding of the pathophysiology using murine pre-clinical models. As a physician scientist, Dr. Zepeda-Orozco is devoted to the development of novel diagnostic approaches that will facilitate targeted treatment for kidney injury using clinical samples.
Dr. Zepeda-Orozco earned her medical degree at the University of Guadalajara in Mexico. She trained in Pediatrics at LeBonheur Children’s Hospital and completed fellowships in Pediatric Nephrology and Renal Transplant at UT Southwestern Medical Center. After completing her fellowships, Dr. Zepeda-Orozco was recruited to the University of Iowa as director of the Pediatric Kidney Transplant program and earned her master’s in Translational Biomedicine.
Gabriel Mayoral Andrade, MD, PhD
Postdoctoral Scientist
Garbiel.MayoralAndrade@NationwideChildrens.org
Gabriel Mayoral Andrade, MD, PhD, joined the Zepeda-Orozco Lab in 2021 to develop novel biomarkers for early detection of acute kidney injury and progressive kidney damage. He has over fifteen years of clinical laboratory experience performing molecular biology, microbiology, and hematology analysis in biological samples.
Dr. Mayoral Andrade earned his medical degree from the Benito Juarez University of Oaxaca in Mexico. He also has a master’s degree in Biochemical Engineering and a doctorate in Regional and Technological Development from the National Technological Institute of Mexico, as well as a doctorate in Medical and Biological Sciences from Benito Juarez University of Oaxaca.
Dr. Mayoral Andrade is a member of the National Research System in Mexico. In Mexico, his research focused on platelet activity´s modulation after sexual intercourse, hemostasis, and thrombosis. Dr. Mayoral Andrade is also a professor of Clinical Pathology, Legal Medicine and Criminology.
Claudia Robles-Planells, PhD
Postdoctoral Scientist
Claudia.Robles-Planells@NationwideChildrens.org
Claudia earned her bachelor's degree in Biochemistry at Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso on the central coast of Chile. Then, she moved to Santiago, the capital, to start her doctorate in Microbiology from a shared program between Universidad de Chile and Universidad de Santiago de Chile. Since then, her research has focused on evaluating the therapeutic and toxic effects of small molecules and peptides on different cell types at the molecular and cellular levels. During the last few years at the University of Iowa, she focused on radionuclide-based therapy's impact on neuroendocrine tumor cells and hematopoietic stem cells. Claudia joined Dr. Diana Zepeda-Orozco’s lab to apply this experience in understanding how kidney function can be affected in patients under this type of therapy as a starting point to understand the mechanisms associated and find mitigating strategies.
Gabriela Vasquez Martinez
Research Assistant
Gabriela.VasquezMartinez@NationwideChildrens.org
Gabriela Vasquez Martinez joined the Zepeda-Orozco Lab in September 2020 to investigate the role of tubular cell mitochondrial superoxide in acute kidney injury and progressive kidney disease. She graduated with a bachelor of science in Criminalistics and Criminology. She also has a master's degree in Regional and Technological Development, in the Biochemistry research line by the National Technology of Mexico/Technological Institute of Oaxaca and she is currently enrolled in a doctoral program in the same area of knowledge. She did her master's training studying the interaction of neutrophils and seminal fluid and their effects on the release of extracellular traps and reactive oxygen and nitrogen species.
Claudia Mosquera Vasquez
Pediatric Nephrology Fellow
Claudia.MosqueraVasquez@NationwideChildrens.org
Claudia is currently a clinical fellow of Pediatric Nephrology here at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Her research interests now are focused on Acute Kidney Injury and Onco-nephrology and she would like to evaluate novel biomarkers for subclinical AKI in pediatric oncologic patients. She graduated from the Escuela de Medicina Luis Razetti at Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas, Venezuela. She has worked with the Kidney and Urinary Tract Center at Nationwide Children’s Hospital since 2017 when she started working with antimicrobial peptides. Claudia completed her pediatric residency at Nationwide Children's in 2021 and completed a chief resident year afterwards.
Ahmed Zeid, MD
Fellow
Ahmed.Zeid@NationwideChildrens.org
Ahmed Zeid, MD, is completing his Pediatric Nephrology Fellowship at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. He has research interests in onco-nephrology and the renal side effects of some chemotherapeutic agents.
Previously, Dr. Zeid worked as a pediatric nephrologist at Cairo University Children’s Hospital and the Children's Cancer Hospital Egypt. He has conducted and participated in several research projects in the areas of renal transplantation, chronic kidney disease (CKD), lupus nephritis and acute kidney injury (AKI).
He earned his master’s degree in Pediatrics and a doctorate in Pediatrics and Pediatric Nephrology from Cairo University. He graduated from Kasr Al-Ainy Faculty of Medicine - Cairo University.