Dr. Vijayakumar Kakade

Biography

Vijayakumar Kakade received his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Mysore, India. Following the completion of his doctoral studies, he entered postdoctoral training at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, focusing on defining candidate signals and sensors that regulate cell activation states in polycystic kidney disease. Since joining Yale University in 2016, Dr. Kakade has established a research direction aimed at delineating the role of macrophages in cystogenesis and polycystic kidney disease, employing Imaging Mass Cytometry to understand cell-cell interactions and the cellular response involved in the pathogenesis of human kidney diseases. His research goals include understanding the pathogenesis of polycystic kidney disease (PKD), a genetic disorder caused by mutations in the Pkd1 and Pkd2 genes, which encode polycystin 1 (PC1) and polycystin 2 (PC2) respectively. His work has unveiled critical roles for polycystins in maintaining the three-dimensional structure of renal tubules. He has focused on the mechanisms underlying cyst development and disease progression to advance mechanism-based therapeutic targets for treating ADPKD. Additionally, Dr. Kakade's lab investigates critical events that maintain the normal architecture of renal tubules and identifies components that are dysregulated in the absence of polycystins. Utilizing Imaging Mass Cytometry, his group has successfully developed machine learning algorithms to identify kidney cell populations and assess cellular responses in human kidney tissue. His interests extend to Epithelial Cells, Tubules, Nephrology, and Spatial Analysis.

Research Interests