Norman Rosenblum
Administrative Assistant: nalma.ny@sickkids.ca
Research Synopsis
My research is focused on genetic and molecular mechanisms that control normal and disrupted mammalian renal development and clinical outcomes in affected humans.
Support for this work is provided via grants from the Kidney Foundation of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Canada Research Chairs program.
My research laboratory is housed in the Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning at the Hospital for Sick Children. Lab facilities include ample bench space and specialized cell culture and imaging facilities.
As a member of the SickKids Program in Developmental and Stem Cell Biology, my laboratory has access to state-of-the-art animal, genetic and proteomic core facilities.
As a clinical pediatric nephrologist specializing in renal malformation, my research focuses also on infants and children with renal and urinary tract malformation, defining clinical aspects of these disorders and genetic mechanisms.
The major focus of my laboratory research is molecular and cellular mechanisms that control renal development in humans and animal models, a model of human renal development.
My laboratory is investigating the functions of signaling pathways controlled by Transforming Growth Factor Beta (TGFBs), Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) and Integrin-linked Kinase (ILK) proteins during normal kidney formation and in renal malformation. Work resulting from these endeavors has demonstrated distinct functions for these effectors in controlling renal branching morphogenesis and nephron formation.
Currently, a large part of my laboratory is focused on the lineage specific functions of Hedgehog signaling in controlling progenitor cell differentiation, control of nephron number, stromal cell differentiation, and renal-urinary tract pacemaker function.
We are investigating these functions in cultured cells, organ explants, transgenic mice and kidney organoids. We are also investigating the mechanisms by which Integrin Linked Kinase controls formation of the renal collecting system via a process termed renal branching morphogenesis.
Our studies focus on the normal biology of kidney development, mechanisms that cause kidney-urinary tract malformation and the functional consequences of missense variants in human genes implicated in kidney development.