Pablo A Ortiz, PhD

Biographical Statement

The Ortiz lab is a diverse group of undergraduate, graduate, post-doctoral and established scientists that focus on understanding the causes of cardiovascular and kidney diseases using an integrated approach to cure hypertension in obesity, diabetes, and kidney disease: from genes to function in patients. There are several causes that lead to a progressive decline in heart and kidney function, the most common are: Hypertension, Diabetes, Obesity and Inherited kidney disease.

Dr. Ortiz’s team studies new genes and proteins that cause cardiovascular and kidney disease by affecting salt and water handling by the kidneys in diabetic and non-diabetic conditions. Dr Ortiz has adapted and developed a large range of methods to study renal and vascular physiology, and the biology of Na/K/2Cl cotransport by NKCC2 including: Next-Generation sequencing, genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, single cell RNA seq, multi-photon and live cell confocal imaging, CRISPR, and viral-mediated gene editing in the kidney. Dr Ortiz’s goal is to generate a detailed molecular understanding of kidney function and disease to speed the development of targeted precision medicine therapies to treat cardiovascular and kidney damage caused by obesity and hypertension. Dr Ortiz’s lab has already identified druggable targets for diabetic kidney disease and obesity-induced hypertension.

Funding for the Ortiz lab: NIH, AHA, NKF

Dr Ortiz is also the Head of the Hypertension and Vascular Research Division (HVRD) at Henry Ford Health. This is a 10-faculty program that studies the physiological and genetic causes of hypertension, heart failure, obesity, diabetes-induced kidney and heart disease and liver steatosis. The Division has world-wide renowned expertise in renal, vascular, heart and liver physiology and pathology as well as translational research. HVRD provides an inclusive and diverse environment that trains the next generation of physiologists and cardiovascular scientists.

Read about Dr. Ortiz's journey in the American Physiological Society's feature article: Mastery in a Micro World - Renal physiologist Pablo Ortiz, PhD, is obsessed with studying the molecular mechanism of salt-sensitive hypertension.