Volker Haase Lab

The laboratory of Professor Volker Haase studies hypoxia response pathways and their therapeutic applications in erythropoiesis and iron metabolism, tissue injury and ischemic pre-conditioning, inflammation, kidney development and tumorigenesis. A major focus of the lab is on the interplay between hypoxic signaling, metabolism and cellular differentiation and its regulation by the prolyl hydroxylase domain (PHD) / hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) / von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor (VHL) signaling axis. Haase group members take advantage of powerful cutting-edge mouse genetics, biochemical, metabolomic and single cell approaches to study oxygen and mitochondrial metabolism in kidney, urologic and other diseases. Click on links for information about career opportunities in the Haase lab and recent publications. We represent a diverse and international group of researchers and students from multiple countries across the world.

Principal Investigator

Volker H. Haase, M.D., Dr. med.
The Krick-Brooks Chair in Nephrology
Professor of Medicine and Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at Vanderbilt University

Volker Haase is a physician-scientist with clinical training in Internal Medicine and Nephrology and holds the Krick-Brooks Chair in Nephrology at Vanderbilt University. He is a leader in the field of mammalian oxygen sensing, prolyl hydroxylase domain oxygen sensor and HIF biology, and trained in experimental biology and genome editing under Professor Rudolf Jaenisch at the Whitehead Institute. Professor Haase is an alumnus of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, a former Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow and the recipient of the 2006 Sir William Osler Young Investigator award. He is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) and was elected to the Association of American Physicians (AAP) in 2016. As of 2018 Professor Haase serves the NIH as a standing member of the Pathobiology of Kidney Disease (PBKD) study section. In addition to directing his research group, Professor Haase provides inpatient care in General Internal Medicine and Nephrology (see Clinical Activities in Internal Medicine and Nephrology).

NCBI profile

Google Scholar profile

ResearchGate profile

ORCID profile

Group Members

Mikhail Burmakin, M.D., Ph.D.

Researcher

Mikhail Burmakin trained in Pediatric Nephrology and Molecular Biology. Mikhail is interested in the effects of HIF prolyl hydroxylase domain enzyme inhibition on renal physiology and works with Volker Haase on single cell transcriptomic profiling for the study of kidney disease.

Olena Davidoff, M.S.

Lab Manager

Olena Davidoff received a Masters Degree in Molecular Diagnostics from Odessa University. Olena is interested in mouse genetics and animal work.

ResearchGate profile

Nan Guan, M.D.

Visiting Graduate Student

Nan Guan received her M.D. degree (Bachelor of Medicine) from Fudan University in Shanghai, China. She is the recipient of a China Scholarship Council fellowship and has joined the Haase laboratory to work on HIF and mitochondrial signaling in kidney disease as part of her Ph.D. studies.

Hanako Kobayashi, Ph.D.

Research Assistant Professor of Medicine

Hanako Kobayashi received her Ph.D. in Molecular Nutrition Science from the University of California, Berkeley. Hanako studies the regulation of EPO in the kidney and is interested in the role of prolyl hydroxylase domain enzymes and HIF in the pathogenesis of acute and chronic kidney injury.

ResearchGate profile

LinkedIn profile

Kyoji Yamaguchi, Ph.D.

Research Assistant Professor of Medicine

Kyoji Yamaguchi received his Ph.D. in Agricultural Sciences (Applied Microbiology) from Nagoya University in Japan after conducting research on protein secretion and localization signals under Prof. Masayori Inouye, which was published in Cell. After spending a large part of his career as a Chief Scientist in pharmaceutical industry in Japan, where he led drug development programs in the HIF domain, he has now transitioned back to academia and joined the Vanderbilt faculty. His interests are in oxygen sensing in renal anemia and kidney injury.