Maryam Afkarian, M.D., Ph.D
Professor of Medicine
To see if Maryam Afkarian is accepting new patients, or for assistance finding a UC Davis doctor, please call 800-2-UCDAVIS (800-282-3284).
Locations and Contact
Lawrence J. Ellison Ambulatory Care Center
Nephrology Clinic
4860 Y St.
Sacramento, CA 95817
Phone: 916-734-3761
Additional Numbers
Physician Referrals
Clinical Interests
Dr. Afkarian's clinical interest is diabetic kidney disease.
Research/Academic Interests
I am the Richard A. and Nora Eccles Harrison Endowed Chair in Diabetes Research and the Depner Endowed Professor of Medicine at the University of California at Davis (UCD). My group uses all three modes of translational research to understand human diabetic kidney disease (DKD) towards developing novel diagnostic and therapeutic tools. We conduct epidemiologic studies to examine and understand DKD natural history, particularly under current standards of care; we also perform molecular analyses of urine and tissue protein expression to understand disease pathophysiology.
Finally, we use this data in interventional clinical trials with the goal to diagnose DKD earlier and intervene in the disease course in a personalized manner (precision intervention). To understand molecular mechanisms of DKD, we have used immunoassays, nephelometry, aptamers and LC-MS/MS to determine expression of proteins from pathways implicated in diabetic kidney disease (DKD) in urine samples from people with DKD. To these tools, we have recently added a study of proteins in human kidney tissues (tissue proteomics) so we can translate our understanding of DKD molecular mechanisms from DKD animal models to human disease. For example, “inflammation” has long been suspected as playing a role in pathogenesis of many chronic human diseases. Its role in DKD pathogenesis has been a topic of renewed interest in the past several years. However, specific mechanisms and immune pathways playing a role in DKD have not been well described. We have reviewed the substantial data supporting a role for the adaptive and innate immune response in DKD progression and added novel data supporting a role for the complement pathway in progression of human DKD (association between urine complement components and DKD progression in human disease), data which has been confirmed in an independent cohort (manuscript in prep). We are currently engaged in using our tissue proteomics platform to examine the complement pathway proteins in human kidneys from people with diabetes, with or without DKD.
Division
Nephrology
Undergraduate School
B.A., UC Berkeley, Berkeley CA 1994
Medical School
M.D., Ph.D., Medicine/Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis MO 2003
Other School
M.M.Sc., Medical Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston MA 2010
Internship
Internal Medicine, New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York NY 2003-2004
Residency
Internal Medicine, New York Presbyterian Hospital, New York NY 2004-2006
Fellowship
Nephrology, MGH-Brigham Joint Nephrology Fellowship, Boston MA 2006-2010
Scholars in Clinical Sciences Program Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 2008-2010,
Pichler R, Afkarian M, Dieter BP, Tuttle KR. Immunity and inflammation in diabetic kidney disease: translating mechanisms to biomarkers and treatment targets. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol. 2017 Apr 1;312(4):F716-F731. doi:10.1152/ajprenal.00314.2016. Epub 2016 Aug 24. PMID:27558558.
Vrana M, Goodling A, Afkarian M, Prasad B. An Optimized Method for Protein Extraction from OCT-Embedded Human Kidney Tissue for Protein Quantification by LC-MS/MS Proteomics. Drug Metab Dispos. 2016 Oct;44(10):1692-6. doi:10.1124/dmd.116.071522. Epub 2016 Aug 1. PMID:27481856.
Afkarian M, Zelnick LR, Hall YN, Heagerty PJ, Tuttle K, Weiss NS, de Boer IH. Clinical Manifestations of Kidney Disease Among US Adults With Diabetes, 1988-2014. JAMA. 2016 Aug 9;316(6):602-10. doi:10.1001/jama.2016.10924. PMID:27532915.
Afkarian M, Katz R, Bansal N, Correa A, Kestenbaum B, Himmelfarb J, de Boer IH, Young B. Diabetes, Kidney Disease, and Cardiovascular Outcomes in the Jackson Heart Study. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol. 2016 Aug 8;11(8):1384-91. doi:10.2215/CJN.13111215. Epub 2016 Jun 23. PMID:27340284.
Afkarian M, Zelnick LR, Ruzinski J, Kestenbaum B, Himmelfarb J, de Boer IH, Mehrotra R. Urine matrix metalloproteinase-7 and risk of kidney disease progression and mortality in type 2 diabetes. J Diabetes Complications. 2015 Nov-Dec;29(8):1024-31. doi:10.1016/j.jdiacomp.2015.08.024. Epub 2015 Sep 2. PMID:26412030.
Afkarian M. Diabetic kidney disease in children and adolescents. Pediatr Nephrol. 2015 Jan;30(1):65-74; quiz 70-1. doi:10.1007/s00467-014-2796-5. Epub 2014 Mar 19. PMID:24643739.
de Boer IH, Afkarian M, Rue TC, Cleary PA, Lachin JM, Molitch ME, Steffes MW, Sun W, Zinman B; Diabetes Control and Complications Trial/Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications (DCCT/EDIC) Research Group. Renal outcomes in patients with type 1 diabetes and macroalbuminuria. J Am Soc Nephrol. 2014 Oct;25(10):2342-50. doi:10.1681/ASN.2013091004. Epub 2014 Jun 12. PMID:24925722.
Afkarian M, Hirsch IB, Tuttle KR, Greenbaum C, Himmelfarb J, de Boer IH. Urinary excretion of RAS, BMP, and WNT pathway components in diabetic kidney disease. Physiol Rep. 2014 May 2;2(5):e12010. doi:10.14814/phy2.12010. PMID:24793984.
Afkarian M, Sachs MC, Kestenbaum B, Hirsch IB, Tuttle KR, Himmelfarb J, de Boer IH. Kidney disease and increased mortality risk in type 2 diabetes. J Am Soc Nephrol. 2013 Feb;24(2):302-8. doi:10.1681/ASN.2012070718. Epub 2013 Jan 29. PMID:23362314.
Afkarian M, Bhasin M, Dillon ST, Guerrero MC, Nelson RG, Knowler WC, Thadhani R, Libermann TA. Optimizing a proteomics platform for urine biomarker discovery. Mol Cell Proteomics. 2010 Oct;9(10):2195-204. doi:10.1074/mcp.M110.000992. Epub 2010 May 28. PMID:20511394.