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Sunder Sims-Lucas, PhD

  • Director, Histology Core and Associate Professor of Pediatrics
  • Associate Vice Chair of Education, Medical Students
  • Director of Student Research Training
  • Director of Research, Pediatric Nephrology

Administrative Assistant: Katherine VanDerWeele

Dr. Sunder Sims-Lucas is a basic research scientist, he is trained as an anatomist and developmental biologist. His research focuses on the formation of the kidney and the the role of maternal stresses (including diabetes and malnutrition) on the formation of the kidney. Furthermore, his program focuses on acute kidney injury as well as the mechanisms that lead to predisposition to injury.

The long term goal of Dr. Sims-Lucas' research relates to the development of therapeutics to mitigate acute kidney injury. He has authored more than 75 publications and has an NIH R01 funded research program. He is the Director of Research for the Division of Pediatric Nephrology. He has a passion related to education and is the Associate Vice Chair for Education and the Director of Student Research Training at the Rangos Research Center and is integral in all levels of training including high school students, undergraduate students, graduate students and post-docs. Finally, he is also the Director of the Histology Core at the John G. Rangos Sr. Research Center.

Professional and Scientific Society Memberships

  • American Society of Nephrology, 2008-Present
  • North American Vascular Biology Organization, 2012-Present
  • Vascular Medicine Institute, 2012-Present
  • American Society of Physiology, 2013-Present

Education & Training

  • BSc, Anatomy/Physiology, Monash University, 2001
  • BSc (Hons), Kidney Development, Monash University, 2002
  • PhD, Kidney Development, Monash University, 2007
  • Postgraduate Work, Lung Stem Cells, Australian Stem Cell Center, 2007
  • Postgraduate Work, Kidney Development, Nationwide Children's Hospital, 2007-2008
  • Postgraduate Work, Kidney Development, University of Pittsburgh, 2008-2012

Selected Publications

Zhang Y, Bharathi SS, Rardin MJ, Lu J, Maringer KV, Sims-Lucas S, Prochownik EV, Gibson BW, Goetzman ES. Lysine desuccinylase SIRT5 binds to cardiolipin and regulates the electron transport chain. J Biol Chem. 2017 Jun 16;292(24):10239-10249.

Mukherjee E, Maringer K, Papke E, Bushnell D, Schaefer C, Kramann R, Ho J, Humphreys BD, Bates C, Sims-Lucas S. Endothelial marker-expressing stromal cells are critical for kidney formation. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol. 2017 Sep 1;313(3):F611-F620.   

Cargill K, Hemker SL, Clugston A, Murali A, Mukherjee E, Liu J, Bushnell D, Bodnar AJ, Saifudeen Z, Ho J, Bates CM, Kostka D, Goetzman ES and Sims-Lucas S. Von Hippel-Lindau Acts as a Metabolic Switch Controlling Nephron Progenitor Differentiation. J Am Soc Nephrol. 2019 Jul;30(7):1192-1205.

Francipane MG, Han B, Oxburgh L, Sims-Lucas S, Li Z, Lagasse E. Kidney-in-a-lymph node: A novel organogenesis assay to model human renal development and test nephron progenitor cell fates. J Tissue Eng Regen Med. 2019 Sep;13(9):1724-1731.

Cerqueira DM, Hemker SL, Bodnar AJ, Ortiz DM, Oladipupo FO, Mukherjee E, Gong Z, Appolonia C, Muzumdar RH, Sims-Lucas S, Ho J. In utero exposure to maternal diabetes impairs nephron progenitor differentiation. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol. 2019 Nov 1;317(5):F1318-F1330.

Chiba T, Peasley KD, Cargill KR, Maringer KV, Bharathi SS, Mukherjee E, Zhang Y, Holtz A, Basisty N, Yagobian SD, Schilling B, Goetzman ES, Sims-Lucas S. Sirtuin 5 Regulates Proximal Tubule Fatty Acid Oxidation to Protect against AKI. J Am Soc Nephrol. 2019 Dec;30(12):2384-2398.

Cargill K, Chiba T, Murali A, Mukherjee E, Crinzi E, and Sims-Lucas S. Prenatal hypoxia increases susceptibility to kidney injury. PLOS ONE Accepted 02/11/2020.

Chiba T, Cerqueira DM, Li Y, Bodnar AJ, Mukherjee E, Pfister K, Phua YL, Shaikh K, Sanders BT, Hemker SL, Pagano PJ, Wu YL, Ho J, and Sims-Lucas S. Endothelial-Derived miR-17 approximately 92 Promotes Angiogenesis to Protect against Renal Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury. J Am Soc Nephrol 32: 553-562, 2021.

Goetzman ES, Bharathi SS, Zhang Y, Zhao XJ, Dobrowolski SF, Peasley K, Sims-Lucas S, and Monga SP. Impaired mitochondrial medium-chain fatty acid oxidation drives periportal macrovesicular steatosis in sirtuin-5 knockout mice. Sci Rep 10: 18367, 2020.

Rutledge CA, Chiba T, Redding K, Dezfulian C, Sims-Lucas S, and Kaufman BA. A novel ultrasound-guided mouse model of sudden cardiac arrest. PLoS One 15: e0237292, 2020.

Abbott A, Bond K, Chiba T, Sims-Lucas S, Oxburgh L, Coburn JM. Development of a mechanically matched silk scaffolded 3D clear cell renal cell carcinoma model. Mater Sci Eng C Mater Biol Appl. 2021 Jul;126:112141. 

Martins CP, New LA, O'Connor EC, Previte DM, Cargill KR, Tse IL, Sims-Lucas S, Piganelli JD. Glycolysis Inhibition Induces Functional and Metabolic Exhaustion of CD4 + T Cells in Type 1 Diabetes. Front Immunol. 2021 Jun 7;12:669456.

Ho C, Zee RS, Omidi N, Bayne C, Hester A, Mukherjee E, Sims-Lucas S, Mbanefo EC, Hsieh MH, Casella DP. Varenicline limits ischemia reperfusion injury following testicular torsion in mice. J Pediatr Urol. 2021 Jul 12;S1477-5131(21)00341-7.

Bond K, Chiba T, Wynne, KP, vary CP, Sims-Lucas S, Coburn JM, Oxburgh L. The Extracellular Matrix Environment of Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma Determines Cancer Associated Fibroblast Growth. Cancers. 2021 Nov 23;13(23):5873.

Narla ST, Duara JL, Bushnell DS, Nouraie M, Holden J, Pfister K, Lucas PC, Sims-Lucas S, Bates CM. Role of ERK signaling in bladder urothelium in response to cyclophosphamide injury. Physiol Rep. 2022 Jul;10(14):10.

Bond KH, Sims-Lucas S, Oxburgh L. Targets for Renal Carcinoma Growth Control Identified by Screening FOXD1 Cell Proliferation Pathways. Cancers (Basel). 2022 Aug 16;14(16):3958.

de Rijk MM, Wolf-Johnston A, Kullmann AF, Maringer K, Sims-Lucas S, van Koeveringe GA, Rodríguez LV, Birder LA. Stress-Induced Changes in Trophic Factor Expression in the Rodent Urinary Bladder: Possible Links With Angiogenesis. Int Neurourol J. 2022 Dec;26(4):299-307.

Rutledge CA, Lagranha C, Chiba T, Redding K, Stolz DB, Goetzman E, Sims-Lucas S, Kaufman BA. Metformin preconditioning protects against myocardial stunning and preserves protein translation in a mouse model of cardiac arrest. J Mol Cell Cardiol Plus. 2023 Jun;4:100034. 

Burton JB, Silva-Barbosa A, Bons J, Rose J, Pfister K, Simona F, Gandhi T, Reiter L, Bernhardt O, Hunter CL, Goetzman ES, Sims-Lucas S, Schilling B. Substantial downregulation of mitochondrial and peroxisomal proteins during acute kidney injury revealed by data-independent acquisition proteomics. Proteomics. 2023 Sep 29:e2300162.

Anne C. S. Barbosa, Katherine E. Pfister, Takuto Chiba, Joanna Bons, Jacob P. Rose, Jordan B. Burton, Christina. King, Amy O’Broin, Victoria Young, Bob Zhang, Bharathi Sivakama, Alexandra V. Schmidt, Rebecca Uhlean, Birgit Schilling, Eric S. Goetzman, Sunder Sims-Lucas. Dicarboxylic acid supplementation protects from acute kidney injury via stimulation of renal peroxisomal activity. JASN Accepted October 2023. Cover article.

Full Publication List via NIH PubMed »

Research Grants

NIH R01DK125015, Endothelial miR-17~92 protects against acute kidney injury (MPI, 25% effort), 2020-2025, $369,478.

NIH R01DK121758, The role of Sirtuin 5 in acute kidney injury (PI, 35% effort), 2020-2025, $455,531.

NIH R25HL158295, The Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh -Cardiology, Hematology and Pulmonology Summer Research Internship Program (CHP2-SRIP), (MPI, 5% effort), 2021-2026, $127,700.

NIH R25HL158295, The University of Pittsburgh Summer Research Internship Program kidney workshop (SRIP-Kid), (MPI, 5% effort), 2021-2026, $108,000.

NIH R01AR074981, Phosphate signaling in bone mineralization, (Co-I, 5% effort), 2019-2024, $150,000.