Directors
Evren Azeloglu, PhD
Dr. Evren Azeloglu is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Pharmacological Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He received his BE/MS degrees in mechanical engineering from Stony Brook University and his PhD in biomedical engineering from Columbia University. Dr. Azeloglu was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellow at the Department of Pharmacological Sciences at Mount Sinai before establishing the Systems Bioengineering Lab in the Division of Nephrology at Mount Sinai. He has received numerous honors including the NephCure-ASN Career Development Award. His research focuses on the intersection of cytoskeletal biomechanics and kidney pathophysiology. His group develops integrative experimental and computational technologies along with tissue engineering methods to study complex disease mechanisms. He is passionate about bringing 21st century technologies into kidney precision medicine. His lab is funded by numerous grants from the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense.
Eric Lima, PhD
Dr. Eric Lima is a Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Cooper Union. He is also the co-director of Invention Factory – an international summer accelerator program for engineers. He received his doctorate in Biomedical Engineering in 2008 from Columbia University. His research focused on the regeneration of cartilage and bone using living cells. He built custom-designed bioreactors for orthopedic applications. At Cooper Union he continues his tissue engineering research while bringing hands-on teaching and design expertise to the classroom. Dr. Lima teaches basic design classes that utilize milling machines, welders, lathes, and other large equipment. Students then combine these mechanical instruments with electrical components and computer programs to prototype their ideas.
Kirk Campbell, MD
Dr. Kirk Campbell is an Irene and Dr. Arthur M. Fishberg Professor of Medicine, Vice Chair for Diversity and Inclusion and Director of the Nephrology Fellowship Program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He received his medical degree from the University of Connecticut and completed a residency in internal medicine at Yale University. He then completed a clinical and research fellowship in Nephrology at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. In addition to treating patients with renal disease, Dr. Campbell leads an NIH-funded research program focused on understanding the mechanism of podocyte injury in the progression of proteinuric kidney diseases. He actively participates in clinical trials testing novel agents for primary glomerular disease. He is the President of the New York Society of Nephrology, a member of the Board of Directors of the Nephcure Foundation, a standing member of the Pathobiology of Kidney Disease (PBKD) study section at the National Institutes of Health, a member of the Medical Advisory Board of the National Kidney Foundation of Greater New York and American Society of Nephrology Grants Review and Education Committees.
MERRIT is a collaborative training program bringing together nephrology researchers at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the engineering educators at The Cooper Union to promote advances in the development of kidney disease treatment.