Our Team

Ora A. Weisz, PhD

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Ora A. Weisz, PhD, is a tenured Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Cell Biology and Associate Director of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Pittsburgh Center for Kidney Research. She also serves as Vice Chair of Faculty Development in the Department of Medicine, Associate Dean for Faculty Development in the School of Medicine, and Assistant Vice Chancellor for Faculty Excellence in the Schools of the Health Sciences. Her research program seeks to understand how genetic disorders and other diseases impact the development and function of the kidney proximal tubule.

Dr. Weisz is a member of the Academy of Master Educators, has served in numerous leadership roles in graduate education, and is the recipient of the Distinguished Mentor Award in the School of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh Postdoctoral Association Advocate Award. She is an elected member of the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars. Dr. Weisz has participated in numerous NIH study sections as a regular and ad hoc member and is a member of the editorial board of several journals, including Journal of the American Society of Nephrology and American Journal of Physiology- Cell Physiology. She recently completed terms as an elected Council member for the American Society of Cell Biology and on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Currently, she serves on the American Physiological Society Publications Committee. In her administrative roles, Dr. Weisz directs orientation and mentoring programs for new tenure stream faculty members in the Health Sciences, promotes initiatives to recruit, promote, and retain a diverse faculty, and oversees the School of Medicine Faculty Advancement Awards, which provide competitive funding for faculty investigators challenged by significant extraprofessional responsibilities.

Catherine J. Baty, DVM, PhD

RESEARCH ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

B.A., Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME, 1980
DVM, University of Minnesota, College of Veterinary Medicine, St. Paul, MN, 1988
PhD,  North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 1997

At NC State, Katy pursued a combined residency/PhD program. Her residency was in small animal internal medicine and her PhD was in Veterinary Medical Biosciences where she studied a reovirus model of myocarditis with Dr. Barbara Sherry. She received a Hitchings Elion Fellowship from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund to study the genetics of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in the cat in the lab of Hugh Watkins at the University of Oxford. She became a research assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh, Dept of Cell Biology; here she ran the live cell imaging group within the Center for Biologic Imaging and started her collaboration with the Weisz lab. Since transitioning to the Renal Electrolyte-Division, she collaborates with members of the Weisz lab and others to develop and use advanced quantitative imaging techniques to answer basic and clinical questions of renal physiology.

Kimberly R. Long, PhD

STAFF SCIENTIST

Kimberly received her PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 2007.

Most recently, Kimberly’s main research focus has been studying the effects of nephrotic levels of albumin and its varied ligands on kidney proximal tubule cell function. With over 25 years of laboratory experience in physical mapping of the human genome, in yeast genetics, in protein purification, in in vitro cellular trafficking assays, and much more, Kimberly provides the students in the laboratory with both technical assistance and hands-on experimental help.

Youssef Rbaibi

RESEARCH SPECIALIST IV

Youssef earned his Bachelor of Science in Biology with a minor in Chemistry from Slippery Rock University in 2003. Since then he has worked at the University of Pittsburgh, undertaking research in lysosomal storage diseases under Kirill Kiselyov between 2003 and 2008. He has been a member of the Weisz lab since 2009 and has assumed multiple responsibilities and carried out research focused mostly on apical membrane traffic in the kidney proximal tubule.

Youssef is currently pursuing his Masters in Public Policy and Management in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh.

Katherine E. Shipman

GRADUATE STUDENT, INTEGRATIVE SYSTEMS BIOLOGY

B.S. in Biology from College of William and Mary, 2011

Kate’s primary research interest is in developing computational and mathematical tools that can be used by anyone to better understand biological systems. Her interest in this area began with her undergraduate research at the College of William and Mary which introduced her to the field of computational biology. Here, she used mathematical models to study and describe the population dynamics of zooplankton in the Chesapeake Bay.

In the Weisz Lab, Kate is working to develop a mathematical model of the megalin trafficking in the proximal tubule to better understand how megalin trafficking is regulated and how might alterations in trafficking result in proteinuria-causing diseases. In particular, Kate is interested in understanding the mechanisms underlying Dent disease.

Outside the lab, Kate enjoys taking on new baking projects and running.

Awards and Fellowships:

  • ASN Pre-Doctoral Fellowship 2018-2019
  • NIH NIDDK Pre-Doctoral Fellowship (F31) 2019-present
  • Experimental Biology Epithelial Transport Group Poster Award Finalist 2020

Elynna Youm

Graduate student, Human Genetics

BA in Computational Biology/Genomics from Washington University in St. Louis, 2018

Elynna is a first-year PhD student with an interest in utilizing computational biology to better understand disease progression. Before going back to school to pursue higher education, Elynna was working as a clinical research coordinator; first in the context of biobehavioral cancer research and then bleeding disorders. In the Weisz lab, Elynna is currently investigating the relationship between sodium glucose transporter 2 (SGLT2) and megalin in proximal tubule cells.

When Elynna is not in the lab, she can be found playing video games, hanging out with her dogs, or at the rock climbing gym.

Wafaa Albalawy

Graduate student, Human Genetics

– M.S in Biomedical Science from Hood college Frederick,MD,USA, 2016
– B.S in Biochemistry from King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 2012

After completing my master’s degree, I worked for three years at the Human Cancer Genomic Research at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The primary objective of the research group was to identify gene dysregulation in cancer most prevalent in Saudi Arabia including thyroid, colon and breast cancer.

Outside the lab, I love to travel especially for a long road trip, explore cafes around Pittsburgh with a goal to try all of them, and to post on social media.

Emily Lackner

Graduate Student, Cellular Biology and Molecular Physiology

B.S. in Biology from Slippery Rock University, 2015

Emily’s primary research interest is to learn how different stress conditions effect cells and the organisms they make up. This started when she did undergraduate research at Slippery Rock looking at different stressors that caused stress response pathway activation. She continued after undergrad as a research technician studying how preeclampsia affects women’s cardiovascular health, specifically how exosomes from their plasma affects arterial health. In the Weisz lab, Emily is currently investigating how orbital shear stress, in our model system of opossum kidney cells, affects endocytic uptake and recycling of megalin in proximal tubule cells.

When not in the lab, Emily loves to travel, hike, kayak, and go to concerts of all kinds.

Former Lab Members

Osama Alshogran

Sohinee Bhattacharyya

Jennifer Bruns

Simone Costa

Kerry Cresawn

Shanshan Cui

Mark Ellis

Gregory Gibson

Megan Gliozzi

Mona Gerges

Christopher Guerriero

Amandeep Kaur

Anatalia Labilloy

Yumei Lai

Polly Mattila

Mark Miedel

Di Mo

Savita Mohan

Bailey Moorhead

William Moorhead

Genesis Suarez Omana

Jamie Popovich

Beth Potter

Venkatesan Raghavan

Qidong Ren

Christina Szalinski

Kelly Weixel

Robert Youker