People

Former:
Brittney Rush, BS (Lab Manager)
Jiaxuan Wang, BS (Master’s Student)
Hanna Alamo (Undergraduate)
Ashwat Subbaraman (Undergraduate)
Sarah Small (Undergraduate)
Kacie Barry (Undergraduate)
Lauren Tracy (Undergraduate)
Dean Campbell, MD (Nephrology Fellow)
Harrison Supnick, MD (Medical Student)
Jenea Lyles (Undergraduate)
Lily Briggs (Undergraduate)

Current Lab Member Profiles

Roderick Tan, M.D., Ph.D.

Rod graduated from Georgetown University in 1999 and came to the University of Pittsburgh in 1999 as an MD/PhD student. He did his graduate thesis in the Cellular and Molecular Pathology Program studying the role of extracellular superoxide dismutase (EC-SOD) in asbestos-mediated pulmonary fibrosis in the lab of Dr. Tim Oury. Upon returning to medical school he fell in love with nephrology and pivoted to studying fibrosis in the kidney (i.e. chronic kidney disease). He joined the lab of Dr. Youhua Liu to study Wnt/beta-catenin, MMPs, and EC-SOD in acute and chronic kidney diseases. He joined the Renal-Electrolyte Division as an Assistant Professor in 2013 and started his own independent laboratory studying kidney injury.  He is also a practicing nephrologist at UPMC and teaches medical students in the PGY2 Kidney Block.  He enjoys spending time with his family and following all Pittsburgh sports teams, especially the Penguins.

Corry Bondi, Ph.D., M.S.

Corry is a postdoc and graduate of Duquesne University.  His experience in kidney research was fostered as a senior research assistant in the lab of Dr. Jeffrey Barnes at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio studying fibroblast to myofibroblast conversion.   At Duquesne he studied melatonin’s signaling mechanism and its potential use in treating substance use and Women’s health.  He is now focused on assessing the role of MCP-1 on glomerular disease, as well as HIF-1alpha and Nrf2 in acute kidney injury.   His work has been recognized at venues such as the Mid-Atlantic Nephrology Young Investigator’s Forum and University of Pittsburgh Acute Kidney Injury Symposium.  His hobbies are alpine dancing and health and fitness. 

Hannah Hartman, B.S.

Hannah is a graduate of Dickinson College, where she was first introduced to kidney research as a student investigating diabetic nephropathy. As an undergraduate, Hannah also participated in the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates training program at Georgia Southern University. There, she worked to develop novel bio-based composite materials for use in bone and joint replacement. Prior to joining the Tan lab, Hannah worked as a research technician for the University of Pittsburgh in a lab studying diabetes and pancreatic diseases. Hannah is an avid Pittsburgh sports fan and a self-described history buff.

Former Lab Member Profiles

Jiaxuan Wang, B.S.

Jiaxuan is enrolled in the Biomedical Master’s Program at the University of Pittsburgh.  He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2020 with a degree in Molecular Biology.  In collaboration with Dr. Neil Hukriede, he worked on studies understanding the role of HDAC inhibition on glomerular disease.  He plays tennis in his free time. 

Brittney Rush, B.S. (Lab Manager)

As the first member of the Tan Lab, Brittney worked on nearly every project, including the application of super-resolution ultrasound to study microvascular rarefaction in AKI, the study of MMP-7 in proteinuric CKD, and identification of the divergent roles of the Keap1/Nrf2 pathway on AKI and proteinuric CKD. Along with Sarah she developed a method for isolation of glomeruli from the kidney, and she generated the key conditional knockout mice used in the lab today.

Sarah Small, B.A.

Sarah spent three summers in the lab, beginning after her senior year in high school and into her undergraduate years at Washington University in St. Louis.  She was also a member of the Summer Undergraduate Research Program.  She contributed to a variety of projects ranging from Wnt/beta-catenin signaling to optimization of Nrf2 enhancers to isolation of glomeruli from the kidney. She is now a medical student at the University of Michigan.

Lauren Tracy, B.S.

Lauren came to the lab as part of the Summer Undergraduate Research Program.  She used genetically modified mice to examine the impact of tubule-derived MCP-1 on AKI.  She is now a graduate student in the Genetics and Genomics Program at Duke University studying developmental retrotransposon activation in the lab of Dr. Zhao Zhang. 

Dean joined the lab in his second year of nephrology fellowship. He was also selected as a Chief Fellow for the program. In our lab, he worked on the role of HDAC inhibition in proteinuric CKD, using an adriamycin model of FSGS. He is now practicing adult nephrology.

Harrison was a medical student at the University of Pittsburgh and completed his longitudinal clerkship in our lab. His project evaluated the role of Nrf2 enhancement in protection against sepsis after pneumonia in mice. This project was a collaboration with Dr. Faraaz Shah in the Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Division. He is now an Emergency Medicine Resident at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).