Jeremy Duffield Raine Award Winner 2004
1. Title and place of work and what doing now 
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Director of the Laboratory of Inflammation Research, and Physician in Nephrology and Internal Medicine at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
2. Work led up to Raine award
I undertook a PhD mentored by John Savill studying the role of macrophages in directing apoptosis of glomerular cells in glomerulonephritis. The function of macrophages in the kidney and glomerulus was unknown at that time.
3. What/who inspired the work
My mentor, John Savill had been studying the function of phagocytosis of dying or apoptotic cells by macrophages in the resolution of inflammation. There were suggestions that macrophages might additionally be able to direct cell death from the cancer literature
4. What Raine award meant
Recognition on a National Scale that I was serious about Science and that our contributions were valued by others. Indication of commitment to Science for Scientific Review and Grant Review.
5. How has career progressed
After meeting my wife, Cheryl who is American, and after starting a post-doc in Edinburgh, sponsored by the NKF, I decided to broaden my knowledge and experience by moving to the Renal Division at Harvard Medical School. My career has continued to flourish. I was able to bring my knowledge of innate immunity to a department that had differing skill sets and by mixing it up a little, many novel and interesting things have fallen out. In addition to academic promotion, I feel proud to have contributed to work that changes the way we think about disease mechanisms and has identified new molecular and cellular targets for the treatment of both acute and chronic kidney diseases.
6. What implications for clinical practice
From work that I have been closely involved in, we have 5 patents. One therapeutic, Pentraxin-2 or Serum Amyloid P is in Phase 1 clinical trials as an anti-fibrotic therapy, and I am working hard to move it into trials in human kidney disease, possibly in post transplant nephropathy in the first instance. We have other therapeutics that are not as advanced through the process indicated for the treatment of acute kidney injury as well as vascular rarefaction. One is in collaboration with the company, Baxter. They have the infrastructure to move it into clinical trials. The other patented therapeutics may require us to set up a company……..
7. What is most proud accomplishment
Staying married! But I guess you mean in Science. Well this is difficult. One accomplishment has been building up a lab of 8 people from nothing, and I am very proud of that because there’s no guidebook and it costs a lot of money. However probably my most proud moment was being awarded together, with my colleague Ben Humphreys, an American Reinvestment and Recovery Act Challenge Grant by the NIH in 2009 to study kidney pericytes, a new cell type we discovered in the kidney. This was one of only 500 grants awarded in the US and there were more than 20,000 applications.
8. What is the most pressing problem in nephrology today
When I got into this business, we were all trying to understand glomerulonephritides. I think we have a much better understanding now of those diseases, and many good therapies. However, we have virtually no therapy for chronic kidney disease, or the consequences of acute kidney injury. Both of these ‘syndromes’ are inflammatory diseases. The numbers speak for themselves. Maybe 30 million in USA have chronic kidney disease and its sequelae. The incidence of acute kidney injury with its equally deleterious sequelae is rising rapidly. I believe that treatments for these two ‘syndromes’ are the pressing needs for the nephrologist
9. Advice for junior trainees
a) This is a crazy and economically unsound career path so don’t do it unless you are committed and serious about Science.
b) Science is not just about doing a western blot. You have got to have many strings to your bow. Think of science like running a small business: ideas and concepts, the currency of science. Good organization is crucial to running any business, so keep the lab organized with good inventories. Then there’s execution and repetition. Then there are controls, controls, more controls and I forgot to mention controls. Then there’s writing, telling a story, graphic design, the art of writing and responding to criticism. Next, there’s raising money, grantsmanship, telling a different story, and finally there’s marketing, getting up on stage and trying to captivate an audience to sell your product.
c) Never have only one project, despite what you boss says. Science is risky business and the best of ideas fail all the time.
d) You’re always learning, so keep a good record of what you are learning.
e) Don’t get too up or too down, as there are plenty of down times in Science.
10. What plans for the future
Great question. I am riding the wave at the moment, so I really want to keep pushing new disease molecular pathways and therapeutic angles that centre around macrophages and pericytes/microvasculature in diseases of the kidney (and elsewhere). I am also committed to turning the great new concepts into something tangible. This needs the private sector, and so the private sector is always calling, so maybe I will end up moving out of academia at some point in the future.