Basement Membranes

Dr.Jeffrey H. Miner, PhD, received his doctorate in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry in 1991 from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA. In 1992 he moved to Washington University in St. Louis for postdoctoral training with Dr. Joshua R. Sanes. In 1996 he was appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Washington University School of Medicine Renal Division, where he has maintained a lab ever since and is currently a tenured Professor. During his postdoctoral fellowship Dr. Miner developed an interest in the roles of collagen IV and laminin in basement membrane function, particularly regarding the glomerular basement membrane of the kidney. He was the first to demonstrate developmental transitions in basement membrane protein isoforms in the developing kidney, and went on to show in knockout mouse models that these transitions are crucial for normal kidney development and function. He discovered the laminin Α5 chain, a widely expressed laminin chain important in several crucial developmental processes, as well as in kidney function. He has continued to focus on rare diseases of the glomerular basement membrane caused by mutations in collagen IV (Alport syndrome) and laminin Β2 (Pierson syndrome and a related congenital nephrotic syndrome) using the mouse as a model. This work has implicated the glomerular basement membrane as a critical component of the kidney’s ultrafiltration barrier that impedes the passage of plasma proteins into the urine. In 2004 he received the American Society of Nephrology’s Young Investigator Award. In 2008 he was Chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Basement Membranes. He was a Councilor of the American Society for Matrix Biology from 2009-2012. Dr. Miner has received grant funding from the National Science Foundation (predoctoral fellowship), the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fund (postdoctoral fellowship), the National Institutes of Health, the March of Dimes, the American Heart Association (Establish Investigator Award and Grant-in-Aid), and the Alport Syndrome Foundation. He has also received research support from industry, including Creative Biomolecules, Biogen, Hoffmann-La Roche, and Third Rock Ventures.