Affiliation: Georgetown University, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Medicine

As a renal physiologist and nutritionist (PhD in Nutrition Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1992), Dr. Ecelbarger has focused heavily on regulating the kidney by insulin and in altered metabolic states, such as obesity type 1 and type 2 diabetes. She conducted a productive fellowship in 1992-1998 at the NIH in Dr. Mark Knepper’s Laboratory of Kidney and Electrolyte Metabolism. In 1998, she came to Georgetown University as an Instructor and is now a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism. She has been funded as a Principal Investigator by the U.S. government via K01, R01, and R21 mechanisms, foundations, e.g., the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association, the National Kidney Foundation, as well as by industry. In the last 10 years, she generated several mouse lines with a renal-cell-specific knockout of the insulin receptor (Insr). She then expanded these studies to include knockout of the insulin-like growth factor receptor (Igfr1), the mammalian target of rapamycin (mtor), and microRNA 451, a microRNA with a putative role in diabetic nephropathy. Her several publications define the role of insulin signaling in the kidney. She is also developing high-throughput approaches, including searching for a panel of microRNA biomarkers to predict susceptibility to nephropathy in type 2 diabetes. As such, she is investigating human urine samples from the Family Investigation of Nephropathy and Diabetes (FIND study). In addition to research, Dr. Ecelbarger is a Georgetown University Faculty Senate member, the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, and the Ethics Committee at the Georgetown University Medical Center. She frequently hosts students of various levels, e.g., high school through a graduate-level in her laboratory. Dr. Ecelbarger, a mother of three, makes her home in Annandale, VA with her husband, Gary. In her free time, she enjoys reading and running.