Gautam Bhave, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of Medicine, is receiving the Burroughs Wellcome Fund 2013 Career Award for Medical Scientists (CAMS) for his research on the role of peroxidasin and protein halogenation in diabetic nephropathy.
Bhave is the first Vanderbilt University Medical Center physician-scientist to win this award since its creation in 2006.
The award, given each year to 10 physician scientists across the country, will provide Bhave with $700,000 over the next five years to support the transition from a postdoctoral position to a faculty position and to encourage the pursuit of a career in academic research.
“The program was initially funded to address the shrinking number of physician scientists,” said Burroughs Wellcome Fund President John E. Burris, M.D., in a release regarding the award.
“Although there continues to be a shortfall in the number of physician scientists, our applicants are of the highest quality and remain dedicated to research that has a strong clinical basis.”
Since the CAMS was created, 72 physician researchers have received funding and 69 awardees are still active researchers.
Bhave’s laboratory studies diabetic renal disease, the leading cause of kidney failure in the United States. Specifically, his group is interested in the excessive accumulation of extracellular matrix, which leads to kidney scarring and loss of renal function.
The goal of Bhave’s research is to better understand how the protein peroxidasin contributes to matrix expansion and kidney cell injury and to develop drugs to target peroxidasin as a potential treatment for diabetic renal disease.
