Ellis Avner, MD

Director

Ellis Avner, MD, director, Children's Research Institute

Ellis Avner, MD, was appointed director of Children's Research Institute in 2004. He also serves as associate dean for Research and professor of Pediatrics and Physiology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr. Avner received his undergraduate degree in Religion from Princeton University and his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He served his internship and residency at The Children's Hospital in Boston, where he also completed his fellowship in Pediatric Nephrology.

Dr. Avner's faculty career began in 1980 at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He moved to Seattle in 1988 where he was a professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine and division chief of Pediatric Nephrology at Children's Hospital and Medical Center. Dr. Avner was appointed chairman of Pediatrics at Case-Western Reserve University and chief medical officer at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in 1995, posts he held until his move to Children's Research Institute. He has held leadership positions in numerous professional organizations including the Society of Pediatric Research, the International Pediatric Nephrology Association, the American Society of Transplantation and the Polycystic Kidney Disease Foundation. He serves as past president of the American Society of Pediatric Nephrology and the Council of American Kidney Societies, and as an elected member of the standing and executive committees of the International Pediatric Association. Dr. Avner has received many honors and, in 2008, was named the recipient of the Henry L. Barnett Award for "excellence in teaching and patient care in Pediatric Nephrology" from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Dr. Avner serves on the editorial board of several key journals in the areas of nephrology and developmental biology and is the editor-in-chief of the standard textbook, Pediatric Nephrology, 6th edition. He is the author of more than 240 original articles and chapters in the area of renal developmental biology, polycystic kidney disease and pediatric nephrology. Dr. Avner directs one of only two federally funded Research Centers of Excellence in Pediatric Nephrology. The National Institutes of Health, private foundations and industry have continuously funded Dr. Avner's laboratory program which focuses on the molecular and cell biology of polycystic kidney disease for the last 26 years. He has generated more than $30 million of extramural research funding in that period.