DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): I am a practicing nephrologist and Co-Director of the Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) clinic at Mayo Clinic, and member of the American Society of Nephrology Dialysis Advisory Group. My research to date has examined patient-important outcomes in dialysis, hypertension, and kidney transplant populations. I will use the acquired skills from my clinical and epidemiology background to bring the proposed basic research investigations into truly translational research for patients with diabetic nephropathy (DN). In my quest to improve the lives of patients with CKD, I have assembled a multidisciplinary team of mentors who will provide guidance, infrastructure, and tools needed for performance of the proposed studies. My immediate career goal is to gain laboratory research skills, clinical trial experience, regenerative medicine fund-of-knowledge, and a Master's degree in Clinical and Translational Science with a focus on regenerative medicine. My long-term goal is to become a leader in Regenerative Nephrology and an independent, productive clinician-investigator. My career development plan during the K23 period entails laboratory rotations, on-site and off-site clerkships in centers for regenerative medicine, individualized coursework, publications, collaborative network building, exposure through abstract presentations at national conferences, and experience with clinical trial protocol design and implementation. These endeavors will provide me with the building blocks needed to transition into independence. I have the strongest support from my division, department, and institution. In the proposed studies, I will explore the feasibility of a novel therapeutic platform that I believe may change the course of disease and improve the lives of patients with DN, a devastating disease with few therapeutic options. DN is the most prevalent cause of CKD and resistant to most interventions aimed at preventing progression. However, recent advances in regenerative medicine of adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stromal/stem cell (MSC) transplantation offer hope. MSCs are non-embryonic stem cells with anti-fibrotic, anti-inflammatory, and pro-angiogenic paracrine activity that improve regeneration in DN models. However, patient-specific factors such as aging, obesity, uremia, and diabetes may decrease cellular function by inducing cellular senescence. Senescence is an irreversible cell cycle arrest, which generates a pro-inflammatory secretory phenotype that impairs neighboring cell function. Hence, increased senescent cell burden in DN may substantially compromise MSC function and become a barrier to successful autologous MSC transplantation. Our overall goal is to characterize and optimize the functional properties of MSC in DN to allow these patients to benefit from future enrollment in clinical trials using stem cell transplantation. Our exciting new data reveal that cellular senescence, a central mechanism limiting MSC ...