Aylin R. Rodan, MD, PhD, FASN

Dr. Rodan received her undergraduate degree in Biology from Yale University. She then completed M.D./Ph.D. training in the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of California San Francisco, followed by Internal Medicine residency at UCSF. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship and nephrology subspecialty training at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where she remained on faculty for five years prior to coming to the University of Utah. Dr. Rodan is a general nephrologist specializing in disorders of the kidney, electrolytes and high blood pressure. She oversees Nephrology Fellows in training in the outpatient and inpatient settings.

The kidney plays a central role in maintaining homeostasis of ions and water in the body. However, the diet of early humans (low sodium, high potassium) is the opposite of the modern diet (high sodium, low potassium). The Rodan laboratory is interested in how the kidney responds to the high sodium, low potasium diet in ways that are both adaptive and maladaptive. Underlying the kidneys' ability to regulate salt and water is the process of ion transport, the vectorial movement of ions across cell membranes. The Rodan laboratory uses the genetic model organism Drosophila melanogaster to study ion transport processes relevant to human physiology. Projects in the lab focus on: 1) ion and water sensing by WNK kinases, which are mutated in a human disorder characterized by high blood pressure and high potassium; and 2) understanding how flies respond to high salt diet, including genes and metabolic adaptations that increase or decrease the ability to cope with high salt. The goal of the laboratory is to understand the regulatory and ion transport mechanisms underlying the response to varying diets and to translate these insights into improved understanding of renal physiology in health and disease.