Friedhelm Hildebrandt (born February 11, 1957) is the William E. Harmon Professor of Pediatrics at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

and Chief of the Division of Nephrology at

Boston Children's Hospital Boston Children's Hospital (formerly known as Children's Hospital Boston until 2013) is the main pediatric training and research hospital of Harvard Medical School, Harvard University. It is a nationally ranked, freestanding acute care children ...

. He was formerly an Investigator of the

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland with additional facilities in Ashburn, Virginia. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American busin ...

(HHMI) and the Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professor of Pediatrics at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

Early life and education

Hildebrandt received his M.D. degree from

Heidelberg University Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is Germany's oldest unive ...

(Germany), obtained his pediatrics and

nephrology Nephrology is a specialty for both adult internal medicine and pediatric medicine that concerns the study of the kidneys, specifically normal kidney function (renal physiology) and kidney disease (renal pathophysiology), the preservation of kid ...

subspecialty training at Marburg University Children's Hospital, and was a postdoctoral research fellow in nephrology at

Yale School of Medicine The Yale School of Medicine is the medical school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 1810 as the Medical Institution of Yale College and formally opened in 1813. It is the sixth-oldest m ...

(Peter Aronson & Peter Igarashi).

Research

Friedhelm Hildebrandt identified and functionally characterized multiple kidney diseases caused by single-genes (Mendelian) including

nephrotic syndrome Nephrotic syndrome is a collection of symptoms due to kidney damage. This includes proteinuria, protein in the urine, hypoalbuminemia, low blood albumin levels, hyperlipidemia, high blood lipids, and significant edema, swelling. Other symptoms ...

, cystic renal ciliopathies, and congenital anomalies of the kidney Hildebrandt was elected to the American

National Academy of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), known as the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineerin ...

in 2015, Leopoldina in 2007, and to the

Association of American Physicians The Association of American Physicians (AAP) is an honorary medical society founded in 1885 by the Canadian physician Sir William Osler and six other distinguished physicians of his era for "the advancement of scientific and practical medicine ...

in 2005. He is a recipient of the Homer Smith Award of the

American Society of Nephrology Founded in 1966, the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) is the world's largest professional society devoted to the study of kidney disease. Composed of over 20,000 physicians and scientists, ASN promotes expert patient care, advances medical r ...

(2014), the Alfred R. Newton Award of the

International Society of Nephrology The International Society of Nephrology (ISN) is an organization concerned with kidney health, founded in 1960. In 1992 the society formed a task force to provide emergency kidney dialysis services in areas struck by disasters (usually earthquak ...

(ISN) (2017), and the E. Mead Johnson Award from the

Society for Pediatric Research A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. ...

(2004). Hildebrandt’s group has identified over 80 novel causative genes of the 240 genes that are currently known to cause chronic kidney disease, if mutated. His laboratory delineated the related disease mechanisms by generating animal models of human kidney disease in mice,

zebrafish The zebrafish (''Danio rerio'') is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Danionidae of the order Cypriniformes. Native to South Asia, it is a popular aquarium fish, frequently sold under the trade name zebra danio (an ...

C. elegans ''Caenorhabditis elegans'' () is a free-living transparent nematode about 1 mm in length that lives in temperate soil environments. It is the type species of its genus. The name is a blend of the Greek ''caeno-'' (recent), ''rhabditis'' ( ...

, and

Drosophila ''Drosophila'' (), from Ancient Greek δρόσος (''drósos''), meaning "dew", and φίλος (''phílos''), meaning "loving", is a genus of fly, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called "small fruit flies" or p ...

as well in cell-based systems. He demonstrated that in a very high percentage of cases with early-onset chronic kidney disease a single-gene cause may be identified. Link to pertinent publications.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hildebrandt, Friedhelm American nephrologists 1957 births Living people 21st-century American physicians Harvard Medical School faculty German emigrants to the United States Heidelberg University alumni Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina University of Michigan faculty Members of the National Academy of Medicine Physician-scientists