Dr. Opeyemi Olabisi is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Nephrology, Duke University School of Medicine and Vice Chief for Research in Division of Nephrology. He received his BSc in Biology from The City College of New York and MD, PhD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, his nephrology fellowship at the combined MGH-BWH Harvard program, and postdoctoral research in the lab of Dr. Martin Pollak, Harvard Medical School. The major goal of his research is to discover and characterize the mechanisms of APOL1-mediated kidney disease (AMKD), the most common form of genetic kidney disease in African Americans, for the purpose of innovative prevention and cure. As a postdoctoral fellow, his research focused on the use zebrafish model and overexpression cellular models to study the cytotoxicity of kidney risk variants of APOL1. During that time, he identified APOL1-mediated cation transport as the upstream trigger of cytotoxicity. However, the intervening mechanisms remain unknown. Since starting his independent lab, his research group has shown that APOL1-cation transport depolarizes plasma membrane triggering a cascade of signaling events including novel activation of GPCR-IP3-calcium signaling, reduction of mitochondrial ATP production, reduction of amino acid import and global protein synthesis. Therefore, his research identified and validated APOL1 pore function as a therapeutic target for AMKD. Recognizing the importance of community engagement to translational research, his lab leads a robust community engagement effort that offers African Americans free screening for AMKD, which also enabled his lab to develop a unique human iPSC-based model of AMKD. He is the principal investigator of an NIH-funded, phase 2 clinical trial of a Jak inhibitor, which blocks APOL1 synthesis. His research is supported by multiple independent NIH grants and published in high-impact journals. He serves on NIH peer review committee.