Leslie Bruggeman Laboratory

Leslie Bruggeman, PhD

Staff, Department of Inflammation & Immunity
Professor, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine
Email: [email protected]
Location: Cleveland Clinic Main Campus

Research

Dr. Bruggeman's lab is studying the etiology of chronic kidney disease using a variety of basic and translational methods including cell culture, preclincal models, and clinical specimens.  Chronic kidney diseases of the glomerulus frequently cause nephrotic syndrome and generally involve injury to the primary epithelial cell of the glomerulus, the podocyte. Her lab's focus is on genetic and environmental causes of nephrotic syndrome, in particular, those assoicated with viral infection of the podocyte and risk attributed to polymorphisms in the APOL1 gene.  

Biography

Dr. Bruggeman is a Professor of Molecular Medicine in the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. She is a native Ohioan, growing up in a small farming community in west-central Ohio. She was fascinated by the natural world at a young age, and always knew she would become a scientist. She attended Bowling Green State University, completing undergraduate degrees in Biology and Chemistry, followed by a PhD in Biochemistry at West Virginia University. Her PhD training was at the start of the modern era of molecular biology, learning all of the basic skills in cloning and sequencing, which landed her a postdoc at the prestigious National Institutes of Health. Her work at the NIH was exciting and intense, and was her first exposure to working with physicians on clinically-relevant problems, an experience that impacted her career trajectory to continue working in medical departments. Her first faculty appointment was in the Nephrology Division at New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine, working on the devastating kidney complications associated with the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Dr. Bruggeman has had an outstanding career in translational research, including over 90 manuscripts, and her work has been funded by NIH, including a recent R01 that aims to understand the connection between viral infection and genetic variations for some common causes of nephrotic syndrome. Dr. Bruggeman returned to Ohio in 2001 joining the faculty of Case Western Reserve University, and transitioned to the Lerner Research Institute in 2017 joining the Departments of Inflammation & Immunity and Kidney Medicine. 

Education & Professional Highlights

PhD, Department of Biochemistry, West Virginia University, 1987

Postdoctoral Fellow, Laboratory of Developmental Biology, National Insititute of Dental Research, 1989-1991

Staff/Senior Staff Fellow, Laboratory of Developmental Biology, National Insititute of Dental Research, 1991-1994

Assistant Professor, Division of Nephrology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, 1994-2001

Associate Professor/Professor, Divison of Nephrology, MetroHealth Medical Center, Case Western Reserve University, 2001-2017

Staff, Department of Inflammation & Immunity, Cleveland Clinic and Professor of Molecular Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, 2017 to present