Featured Researcher

Featured Researcher: Dr. Sanja Sever

Each month NephCure will feature a different person for you to learn more about who plays a role in the overall success of the foundation. From patients to family members to doctors to staff, out intention is to allow everyone to learn more about the people involved in finding a cure for FSGS and Nephrotic Syndrome.

This month, NephCure is featuring Dr. Sanja Sever, a researcher, wife and mother of two children, Luka (9) and Niko (6). With NephCure’s help, she is researching the molecular mechanisms that underlie FSGS. Her research facility is Massachusetts General Hospital located in Charlestown, Massachusetts.

Q: Tell us what got you interested in researching kidney disease.

A: Serendipity. I learned about podocytes when Dr. Jochen Reiser, then a young nephrology fellow who studied podocytes, joined the Nephrology Division at MGH. It just happened that the protein that I have been studying for a number of years plays a major role for podocyte structure and function, and it also represents a druggable target.

Q: Are you currently conducting any research into FSGS and Nephrotic Syndrome? If so, what is it, how’s it going, any progress to report?

A: Yes, my laboratory has been and will continue to work on molecular mechanisms that underlie FSGS.  In fact, we are trying to develop novel therapeutics to treat FSGS.  Since I was funded by the NephCure foundation, I am enclosing a progress report that I have just sent to the foundation. It includes our recent publications as well as my Personal Statement.

Q: What would you tell someone who was newly diagnosed with FSGS/Nephrotic Syndrome about the area of research that would help to inspire hope for their condition?                                                                                  

A: I think that our knowledge about FSGS has reached a level that provides a solid base for development of novel therapeutics to treat FSGS. I am positive that within the next 5-10 years there will be major novel treatments for FSGS. In fact, my laboratory is working on one of those potential novel treatments now (see Progress Report that is included in this message). In addition, a major discovery regarding FSGS has just been published in the Nature Medicine by Dr. Jochen Reiser (Wei et al., 2011, Nature Medicine, epub ahead of print). This discovery has a potential to dramatically change treatment of FSGS patients in the very near future.  

Q: How did you get interested in your career? Did you always want to go into medicine?

A: No, I had no interest in medicine. I am a scientist. In fact, I thought all through my high school years that I was going to be a lawyer, just like my father, and then suddenly I changed my mind and decided to study Molecular Biology.  I had no clear idea what Molecular Biology was all about, it just sounded interesting and challenging.

Q: Have you made any scientific discoveries? If so, what was that like?             

A: I have made a number of scientific discoveries.  When the data comes in and you realize what they truly mean, the feeling is incredible. I think that it can be described as “runners high”, when your body is full of positive energy and you have a feeling that you could either run forever or fly.  Those moments are very rare, since most of the time we deal with disappointments (experiments that do not work, data that do not make sense, manuscripts that get rejected, grants that do not get funded).

Q: What advice would you give anyone interested in becoming a nephrologist, researcher or who want to go into medicine?

A: The most important thing in life is to be brave. And the second most important thing is to feel true passion for what you do.

Q: What are your hobbies and other interests?

A: I love to bake cakes. I love books especially children books (only fiction, I do not like biographies or non-fiction), I love playing soccer with my boys and I love dancing.

Q: What is one thing everyone should know about you?

A: I am a huge optimist.

Q: Who is the most influential person in your life?

A: My husband Johannes.

Q: If you could go back in time, what time period would you most like to visit?

A: I would not want to go back in time. I love the present and I am very much looking forward to the future.

Q: What would be your ideal vacation?

A: My ideal vacation is together with my family at the Croatian coast. We have it every year.

Q: What is your favorite sports team?

A: I am not huge fan of any TV sports team but if I had to choose it would be the Red Sox

Q: What is your claim to fame away from the research arena? For example, did you ever win a spelling bee or sports title or science project in school???

A: I competed for my high school gymnastic team. We won several competitions. In college I also danced for a dance group (jazz dance). We made several TV shows. If I were not a scientist, I would have been a dancer.