I am a graduate student working with Klaus Hahn and Ron Falk to investigate the dynamic pathways involved in patients with Minimal Change Disease (MCD). MCD is a rare inflammatory disease that causes kidney damage primarily in young children, due to the loss of podocyte foot processes. Podocyte foot processes form a junction called the slit diaphragm, which acts as a filter keeping large proteins from leaking into the urine. A central question in the field is what drives the morphological changes of podocytes in patients with MCD.   I am exploring this with traditional approaches and by developing a biosensor to study how the protein nephrin interacts with neighboring cells to form the slit diaphragms.