Featured Researcher

Featured Researcher: Christian Faul

NephCure continues to feature a different person for you to learn more about who plays a role in the overall success of the foundation. From patients to family members to staff, our intention is to allow everyone to learn more about the people involved in finding a cure for FSGS and Nephrotic Syndrome.

Meet featured researcher Christian Faul, acclaimed kidney scientist, proud husband to Stefanie and father of son Paul-Philipp. Through a new model that he has created, Dr. Faul hopes to identify the genes that cause Nephrotic Syndrome. He is located at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Q: Are you currently conducting any research into FSGS and Nephrotic Syndrome? If so, what is it, how’s it going, any progress to report?

A: Yes, most of the projects in my laboratory are related to podocyte biology and focus on understanding the causes of Nephrotic Syndrome on a molecular level. We believe that we have identified a major factor in podocytes that once switched on changes the activity state of certain genes, which then leads to damage of the glomerular filter and proteinuria.

The mouse model we have developed for this factor seems to resemble many features found in patients with FSGS and we believe that this is a great model to study new drugs for FSGS treatment. Furthermore, we want to use this animal model to identify these activated genes since we believe that they might be also switched on in patients with Nephrotic Syndrome.

To do so, Dr. Mathias Kretzler from the University of Michigan will help us and with his experience in genetic profiling and the immense information in the NEPTUNE database, we hope to separate the causative and “bad” genes from the irrelevant ones. New drug development would then focus on tackling those “bad” genes.

Q: What would you tell someone who was newly diagnosed with FSGS/Nephrotic Syndrome about the area of research that would help to inspire hope for their condition?

A: As someone who tries to understand the kidney filter and its damage in diseases like FSGS on a molecular level for more than 10 years and as someone who has been trained in this discipline by some very successful physician-scientists, I can say that the basic research on Nephrotic Syndrome has never been more active and successful than in the past three years. More and more young researchers as well as established scientists from other disciplines enter the field and more and more new discoveries are made in very short time intervals. Therefore, I have no doubt that within the next five years our basic discoveries made in cultured cells and in mice will translate into the development of new drugs to prevent or treat FSGS.

Q: How did you get interested in your career? Did you always want to go into medicine?

A: I grew up in the German countryside, and my grandfather was a farmer, so as kids we learned a lot of about animals and plants.  Also, in school Biology was always my most favorite subject. As a teenager, the topics in biology class switched from animals to molecules, and to understanding how molecules regulate the function of a whole organism. I knew that this was my thing. That’s why I decided to study molecular and cell biology.

The fact that I ended up in kidney research was by pure coincidence. During my undergraduate studies in Heidelberg, I wanted to go for a backpacking trip to New Zealand, but I first needed the make some money. Since I loved doing experiments, I took a job in a research lab department led by Dr. Wilhelm Kriz, a very famous anatomist and one of the “godfathers” of kidney morphology. There I met Drs. Peter Mundel and Jochen Reiser who started to do molecular kidney research and I was immediately hooked.

A couple of years later Peter moved to New York. I followed him as a graduate student and I worked in his team for almost eight years. In 2008, Jochen offered me a job as an independent scientist and faculty at the University of Miami. It was a no-brainer to grab this great opportunity and to start my own kidney research.                                                                                                        

Q: Have you made any scientific discoveries? If so, what was that like?

A: I would say that so far I have made two major scientific discoveries, both of which should have clinical impact in the long-run and give us and other researchers in the field the opportunity to develop new drugs.

The first was a study I did together with my longtime mentor Dr. Peter Mundel. We discovered a direct effect of cyclosporine A (CsA) on podocytes. This study showed for the first time that CsA does directly affect the kidney filter in a beneficial way, which might explain why some patients with Nephrotic Syndrome benefit from CsA treatment. By identifying the underlying molecular pathway in detail we think that we have uncovered a new target so that we can now develop a better drug with less side effects than CsA.

The second finding is a very recent one, where together with Dr. Myles Wolf, a nephrologist and clinical scientist here at the University of Miami, we identified a factor in the blood that might cause cardiac disease in patients who suffer from chronic kidney disease (CKD). We believe that by blocking the action of this factor we can prevent cardiac damage in CKD patients. This would be an enormous discovery, since the major cause of death in patients with a failing kidneys is cardiac disease.                 

Q: What advice would you give anyone interested in becoming a nephrologist, researcher or who want to go into medicine?

A: Biology and basic research might not be the most attractive career paths if you think about money and wealth. There are many other disciplines and jobs that will fill your bank account much faster and to a bigger extent. However, if your heart is not into your job, life can get very hard and who wants to be sitting in the corner covered in gold but bored to death. So if you love science and you feel that this is what you want to do, you should just go for it. And by the way, there‘s nothing sweeter than discovering something new, something designed by nature that no one else has ever seen or even thought of before. If you then get the respect from the scientific community, you are in science heaven.

Q: What are your hobbies and other interests?

A: I’m a huge soccer fan, and I played a lot in my teens and twenties. Nowadays I’m watching as many matches on TV as possible, and I enjoy the moments when my beloved German team enters the field. I spend a lot of money on buying music (the one that comes in form of a CD and is labeled heavy metal, rock, indie or electronic; not the computer file format) and I’m a big James Bond fan.

Q: What is one thing everyone should know about you?

A: Even if you are a professor and supposedly serious scientist, you still have the right to listen to Metallica and consider The Goonies as an outstanding movie.

Q: Who is the most influential person in your life?

A: That’s a tough one since in 37 years I have met a lot of people who formed and guided me. Of course, my parents always had and still have an immense impact on what I am today. Then, my own little family is my engine for everyday’s life and my path into the future. However, from the