Biography
Leah J. Siskind, PhD, is a tenured Professor of Medicine in the Division of Medical Oncology and Hematology at the University of Louisville School of Medicine and a primary member of the UofL Health Brown Cancer Center, where she is the co-leader of the Experimental Therapeutics Program and a co-director of the Tumorigenesis and Therapeutic Outcomes Laboratory. Her research program is funded by the National Cancer Institute and focuses on how cancer therapies, particularly platinum-based regimens such as cisplatin, injure the kidney and drive the transition from acute kidney injury to chronic kidney disease, with the goal of developing mechanism-based strategies to protect renal function and improve long-term outcomes for patients with cancer. Dr. Siskind earned her PhD in membrane biophysics/biology from the University of Maryland in 2003 and completed postdoctoral training in cancer and lipid biology at the Medical University of South Carolina in 2009 before transitioning to a faculty position as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Siskind was recruited to the University of Louisville in 2013, where she advanced through the ranks from Associate Professor to Full Professor. She has held several key leadership roles in graduate education and academic administration, including Director of Graduate Studies and Vice/Associate Chair for Graduate Education in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, before transitioning into her current Professorship and primary appointment to the Department of Medicine in the Division of Medical Oncology and Hematology and integrated roles within the UofL Health Brown Cancer Center. Since her initial faculty appointment in 2009, Dr. Siskind has maintained continuous federal research funding, reflecting the sustained impact and innovation of her work in cancer therapy–related kidney injury and repair. She is also an accomplished mentor of MD/PhD, PhD, MS, and undergraduate students, with mentees who have secured competitive fellowships such as NIH F31 awards and progressed to successful careers in academic medicine, research, and industry, underscoring her commitment to cultivating the next generation of biomedical scientists.
Research Interests
Dr. Siskind’s training and contributions to science have been at several different levels that have increased in their complexity as my interests have transitioned to more translationally relevant biological questions. The Siskind laboratory now aims to develop the most physiologically relevant model systems to identify and test potential therapeutic agents in an effort to bridge the gap between success at the laboratory bench and in preclinical animal models to that of clinical trials at the bedside in patients. By performing research under physiologically relevant conditions that effectively recapitulate that of the clinic, Dr. Siskind believes that success of drugs in AKI and CKD clinical trials will improve. The Siskind laboratory studies kidney injury induced by chemotherapeutics and we have developed a potentially more clinically relevant dosing regimen of cisplatin that reflects the periodic low dose cisplatin that patients receive in the clinic. The Siskind laboratory has utilized this model to study the long-term impact on kidney function and found that cisplatin-induced kidney injury leads to the development of chronic kidney disease. In addition, the Siskind laboratory incorporates pre-clinical models of cancer into cisplatin dosing regimens so that potential nephroprotectants can be tested not only for their impact on short- and long-term kidney pathology and function, but also for their impact on the ability of cisplatin to reduce tumor burden.
Research Labs
Degrees and Certifications
University of Maryland, College Park, 2000-2003