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The Division of Pediatric Nephrology at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh is pleased to announce that Juhi Kumar, MD, MPH, was appointed as division clinical director beginning January 1, 2025.
Dr. Kumar joined the Division in August 2022, as the Medical Director of the Pediatric Kidney Transplant Program.
“I’m excited to take on this new role in our division and will continue to work on expanding our clinical programs and services to provide timely and excellent care to children with kidney disease. says Dr. Kumar.
More About Dr. Kumar
Prior to joining UPMC Children’s, Dr. Kumar was an Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and Population Health at Weill Cornell Medicine for 13 years. She served as the Medical Director of the Pediatric Kidney Transplant Program at Weill Cornell Medicine/New York Presbyterian Hospital for 2-years and was named Interim Division Chief of Pediatric Nephrology in January 2022.
Dr. Kumar earned her medical degree from LLRM Medical College in India. She did her residency training in pediatrics at SUNY-Downstate Medical Center, located in Brooklyn, New York, and then went on to complete a pediatric nephrology fellowship at Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in the Bronx, New York. She earned her Master’s in Public Health from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
Dr. Kumar’s early career work was largely research oriented, having earned a National Institute of Health (NIH)/NIDDK, K23 career development award for clinical research which was focused on vitamin D deficiency and chronic kidney disease in children.
“A significant portion of my clinical research was focused on vitamin D and chronic kidney disease,” says Dr. Kumar. “Specifically, I had an interest in how CKD can influence and predispose patients to bone disease, and subsequently downstream effects like fractures and other clinical outcomes.”
Among other findings, Dr. Kumar’s K23 research revealed a significant prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among children suffering from chronic kidney disease. This deficiency was found to contribute to early elevations in parathyroid hormone levels and a greater deficiency in 1,25- di hydroxyvitamin D.
She is also the co-principal investigator along with Drs. Sandra Amaral and Brendan Keating (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia) of an NIH/NICHD- R01-funded multicenter study called VIRTUUS that is examining the use of urinary biomarkers to monitor for early signs of rejection in pediatric kidney transplant recipients.
“This ongoing work was based on a lot of the pioneering work and seminal studies conducted on urinary messenger RNA biomarkers of kidney rejection in adults by my mentor at Weill Cornell Medicine, Dr. Manikkam Suthanthiran, MD, who leads the adult nephrology division and transplant program there,” says Dr. Kumar. “Working with Dr. Suthanthiran over the years was how I developed an interest in kidney transplantation.”
Acute rejection in kidney transplantation affects approximately 10-13% of pediatric patients. Lack of non-invasive, early markers of acute rejection makes it challenging to monitor the immune status of an allograft. Protocol biopsies are not often done in children at many centers.
“This is why we are very interested in pursuing research like in the VIRTUUS study because having a validated, sensitive, and noninvasive marker can help us appreciate acute rejection earlier and hopefully we can intervene sooner and limit damage to the kidney transplant."
Dr. Kumar's transition from Weill Cornell to UPMC Children's was fueled by a desire for a more significant role in clinical research and program-building. The substantial patient base at UPMC Children's and expanding kidney transplant program presented opportunities for enhanced clinical research, a continuation of some of her existing studies, and the ability to interact with and care for more transplant patients.
“I look at my work with the kidney transplant program at UPMC Children’s as evolving along a three-fold strategy to grow the program and improve long-term outcomes for children,” says Dr. Kumar. “This encompasses work in the clinical, educational, and research aspects of the program.”
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