Phillip Kantharidis

To understand the interplay between genetic, fibrotic and inflammatory factors in diabetes that contribute to diabetic complications.

Research goals

Our research is focused on understanding the role of various cytokines and growth factors that drive the development of diabetic complications and in particular end stage kidney disease and atherosclerosis. Our laboratory has demonstrated that several cytokines and growth factors are elevated in diabetes and this results in dysregulation of certain microRNA, which are important regulators of fibrotic and inflammatory pathways in the kidney and the aorta. Targeting of these factors and microRNA directly has remained difficult due to their normal physiological roles.

More recently, we have made an exciting discovery in that a family of small endogenous molecules known as “resolvins” are able to attenuate the pathological signaling in diabetes by dampening both inflammatory and fibrotic pathways in tissues where complications occur. We are currently testing various analogues as novel treatments for dealing with multiple complications.

Another aspect of our work focusses on the identification of genetic markers in biological fluids by the use of RNA-seq in order to establish a biomarker profile that is predictive of the development of diabetic complications.