The co-program directors are basic and translational scientists, John Sedor, MD, Margot Damaser, PhD and John Becknell, MD, PhD who have complementary expertise and long training track records in career development of students, post-doctoral trainees and junior faculty. Together, they are responsible for programmatic direction and execution of the study and development of all administrative policies, procedures, and processes.
Drs. Sedor and Damaser have worked together effectively and collegially since the Cleveland U2C/TL1 program was funded in Fall, 2021. Dr. Becknell has been part of the Network leadership since Nationwide Children’s Hospital joined the Cleveland group to create the C2KUHR-TN. A brief description of the co-Program directors’ qualifications follows.
John Sedor, MD
Dr. Sedor holds the Ray Gifford Chair in Kidney Disease Research and is a Professor of Molecular Medicine in the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University. He has participated in career development of students, postdoctoral trainees and junior faculty. He was the P.I. of the Case Western Reserve University Nephrology Training Program (NIDDK-funded) from 1997 to 2021. The T32 program was highly successful in preparing and retaining trainees for science related careers. Over 10 years prior to the end of the program, the T32 supported 17 trainees, who published 57 papers. All trainees remained in research or science-based careers. Dr. Sedor has presented mentoring talks at the American Society of Nephrology Professional Development Symposium, University Hospitals Agre Resident Career Development Seminar, NIDDK National Diabetes Research Centers Medical Student Research meetings, the Diabetes Centers Summer Student research symposium, National Kidney Foundation Young Investigator meetings and was on the planning committee for the NIDDK T32 Best Practices Meeting, which resulted in the U2C/TL1 PAR. The Sedor lab focuses on progressive kidney disease mechanisms with a major focus on APOL1 kidney disease. He has published over 200 papers and been continuously funded by the NIH since 1984. Dr. Sedor is Chair of the Nephrotic Syndrome Study Network (NEPTUNE) and a steering committee member of the Cure Glomerulonephropathy (CureGN) network. Both consortia have career development activities and support for trainees and junior faculty.
Margot S. Damaser, PhD
Dr. Damaser is Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University, Full Staff in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Urology at Cleveland Clinic, and Senior Research Career Scientist and Deputy Director of the Advanced Platform Technology Center at the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Cleveland, OH. Dr. Damaser has over 200 peer-reviewed publications and has had continuous research funding from VA and NIH for over 20 years in addition to collaborative research grants from private foundations and several companies. She is widely regarded as an international expert on urodynamics, models for studying pelvic floor disorders, development of novel regenerative technologies for urology and pelvic floor, as well as development of new technologies for wireless catheter free monitoring of bladder and other organs. She holds 10 issued US Patents and has 2 pending Patents. A commercial product based on her technology was recently approved by FDA for clinical use. Dr. Damaser has trained approximately 20 graduate students, 10 postdoctoral fellows, and over 50 clinical fellows. At VA she has mentored 4 Career Development Awardees, all of whom are now Assistant or Associate Professor. Other former trainees are now faculty at medical schools, Department Chair, or R&D Engineers in industry. Like Dr. Sedor, she has given many mentoring talks at national and international scientific meetings. Dr. Damaser was recently awarded the Urology Care Foundation Distinguished Mentor Award and the Society of Women in Urology – Society of Basic Science Research Award for Excellence in Urologic Research. She is an elected member of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) College of Fellows, representing the top 2% of medical and biological engineers. She has been inducted as a Senior Member to the National Academy of Inventors.
Brian Becknell, MD, PhD
Dr. Becknell is Associate Professor of Pediatrics with Tenure in the College of Medicine at The Ohio State University, Research Director and Principal Investigator in the Kidney and Urinary Tract Center (KUTC) in the Abigail Wexner Research Institute (AWRI) at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. He received his MD and PhD from The Ohio State University, where his graduate studies with Michael Caligiuri, MD, focused on innate immune properties of human natural killer cells. He has 118 peer-reviewed publications and has had sustained NIH funding for ten years. The Becknell lab focuses on strategies to preserve renal function in children with congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract. He serves as an ad hoc member of several NIH study sections. He has a strong commitment to mentorship at all levels and has trained nine postdoctoral fellows; of whom five currently hold academic appointments and four have extramural funding. He has recruited six faculty to the KUTC at AWRI, all of whom have extramural K or R funding.