James Calvet PhD is a University Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Cancer Biology at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS. Dr Calvet received his PhD in Genetics and Cell Biology from the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT. He is currently the PKD Group Leader in the Cancer Biology Program of the University of Kansas Cancer Center, and the Director of the NIH-U54 Kansas PKD Research and Translation Core Center, one of three centers in the US forming the PKD Research Resource Consortium. The consortium has an emphasis on developing basic and translational research for PKD through its three biomedical research cores and pilot & feasibility grants.

Dr Calvet’s early research uncovered a Ca2+-dependent signal transduction defect in PKD cells that transforms normal cells to PKD cells. His group also led to the discovery that cAMP drives both increased cell proliferation and cyst-filling fluid secretion, the basis for seminal advances in the field of PKD research. His lab had also pioneered studies of PKD1 gene structure and function.

Dr Calvet has served on numerous NIH committees and the editorial board of JASN. In 2011 he was honored with the Lillian Jean Kaplan International Prize for Advancement in the Understanding of Polycystic Kidney Disease, awarded jointly by the International Society of Nephrology and PKD Foundation.

Dr Chapman is the section Chief of Nephrology at the University of Chicago and the Director of the Clinical Research Center for the University of Chicago’s Institute for Translational Medicine.

Dr Chapman attended medical school at MacMaster School of Medicine in Ontario, Canada, followed by training in Internal Medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, DC and a fellowship in Renal Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She joined the University of Colorado faculty as an Assistant Professor and was later promoted to Associate Professor. She then joined the faculty at Emory University, where she was promoted to Professor of Medicine and later accepted the role of section chief of Nephrology at the University of Chicago.

Dr Chapman’s research focuses on mechanisms of cyst formation in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease. She has been integrally involved in the development of novel imaging biomarkers for this disease. In addition, her career has focused on other rare conditions including ARPKD, the CAKUT disorders, ciliopathies, tuberous sclerosis complex and von Hippel Lindau disease.
Her academic contributions include membership on several NIH committees as well as the Scientific Advisory Council for the Polycystic Kidney Disease Research Foundation and the Council for the American Kidney Societies. She has also served on the editorial boards for JASN, CJASN, AJKD, Kidney International, and NDT.