# Mentoring in Kidney Health to Improve Equity

> **NIH NIH K26** · NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE · 2024 · $165,190

## Abstract

Abstract
 Dr. Melamed is an internationally known kidney health investigator and award-winning
mentor. She has mentored 16 post-doctoral fellows in Internal Medicine and Pediatric Nephrology.
Her earliest trainees currently hold R-level grants from the NIH. She has published over 130 pa-
pers in the medical literature and has been continuously funded by the NIDDK since 2007. Her
research includes important work on metabolic acidosis in kidney and bone health and innovative
models of care in kidney disease including group-based care and the use of peer mentors in
patients requiring in-center hemodialysis treatment. She is currently an MPI on 2 R01 grants. One
is for a randomized clinical trial of potassium citrate to evaluate effects on bone in kidney disease
using state of the art High Resolution peripheral-Quantitative Computed Tomography (HR-
pQCT). The other is a secondary analysis of biomarkers of volume expansion and vascular cal-
cification combining data from 3 separate (n=395) randomized, placebo controlled trials of sodium
bicarbonate in patients with kidney disease. Dr. Melamed is committed to mentoring investigators
from Diverse Backgrounds. She has attended multiple career development workshops on men-
toring and plans on using the funding from this award to continue building her skills through work-
shops, intensive one-on-one mentoring of trainees, and meeting with an Advisory Committee that
will help her to become more attuned to the needs of Diverse Trainees. Her commitment to train-
ing junior investigators is evidenced by her writing and obtaining funding for several training grants
including being the contact MPI for an NIDDK-funded U2C/TL1 award entitled the “New York
Consortium for Training in Kidney, Urological and Hematological Research”, a consortium that
includes the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, the
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony
Brook. There is an additional pathway program for students at the City University of New York.
This training grant, which includes 7 post-doctoral fellow and 3 pre-doctoral fellow training spots,
brings together the 4 institutions to improve collaborations in these important research areas. She
has access to a diverse candidate pool at Einstein and has successfully mentored several post-
doctoral fellows, including several Pediatric Nephrologists, from Diverse Backgrounds to aca-
demic careers in Nephrology. In sum, Dr. Melamed is an established, award-winning mentor with
a successful history of mentoring researchers from Diverse Backgrounds. This award will protect
her time to be able to mentor additional trainees.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11143593
- **Project number:** 7K26DK138488-03
- **Recipient organization:** NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Michal L Melamed
- **Activity code:** K26 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $165,190
- **Award type:** 7
- **Project period:** 2023-09-07 → 2028-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11143593

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11143593, Mentoring in Kidney Health to Improve Equity (7K26DK138488-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/11143593. Licensed CC0.

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