The Nephrology Division of the Massachusetts General Hospital has a long tradition of excellence in patient care, teaching and research. The Unit offers a full range of clinical activities to the patient with renal disease delivered by competent and caring physicians. Its clinical fellowship program is designed to optimize the educational experience of the fellows in all fields of nephrology. Its research programs are extensive and are largely supported by the National Institutes of Health.

M. Amin Arnaout, M.D., Chief of the Nephrology Division
Dr. Arnaout completed medical school and medical residency at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon prior to undertaking further clinical and research training at Johns Hopkins University, Children's Hospital in Boston and Brigham and Women's Hospital. His major research activities are in the molecular biology of leukocyte adhesion and its role in acute and chronic inflammation, the genetics of polycystic kidney disease, kidney development, gene regulation and the pathogenesis of vasculitis. His clinical interests involve glomerulopathies, vasculitis, diabetic nephropathy and tubulointerstitial diseases including polycystic kidney disease.

Hasan Bazari, M.D., Clinical Director
Dr. Bazari obtained his MD degree from Albert Einstein School of Medicine and did his residency and fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He is currently the director of the training program in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is an active clinician and teacher with a large nephrology practice. His research interests include: acute renal failure, cholesterol embolization syndrome and nephrotic syndrome.

Dennis A. Ausiello, M.D.
Dr. Ausiello obtained his MD degree at University of Pennsylvania. After internship and residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital, he was a Staff Associate at the National Institutes of Health before taking his renal fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1984, he became Chief of the Nephrology Division, and in 1996, Chief of the Department of Medicine. His major research interests are the molecular mechanisms involved in epithelial function, particularly signal transduction and membrane transport, and his clinical interests involve fluid and electrolyte metabolism, hormone action and renal tubular function.

Jodie L. Babitt, M.D.
Dr. Babitt obtained her MD degree from Harvard Medical School. She served her internship and medical residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. She obtained her Nephrology Fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her research interests are in the area of iron metabolism and anemia of chronic renal disease.

Cecil H. Coggins, M.D.
Dr. Coggins received his MD from Harvard and completed medical residency and renal fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and Stanford Medical Center. He is the director of the HST Renal Pathophysiology course, the MGH Renal Elective and the Inter-hospital Advanced Renal Pathology Seminar and Clerkship. His research interests involve clinical studies of glomerular disease and of diet in renal disease.

Louis Ercolani, M.D.
Dr. Ercolani obtained his M.D. degree at the State University of New York Downstate College of Medicine. After internship in Medicine at the Kings County Hospital he completed his residency and renal fellowship at The New York-Hospital Cornell Medical Center.He subsequently did a research post-doctoral fellowship in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the Massachusetts General Hospital. His major research interests are the molecular mechanisms involved in G-protein mediated signal transduction. His clinical interests involve hormone action and renal tubular function.

Leslie Fang, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Fang obtained his Ph.D. degree in Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Illinois. He obtained his MD from Harvard Medical School and did his residency and fellowship in nephrology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He runs a clinical practice in nephrology, and is a part-time member of the Unit. His major interest is in interactive clinical teaching, and he has been interested in clinical projects involving acute renal failure and diabetic nephropathy.

Nelson Goes, M.D.
Dr. Goes obtained his MD degree from the Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil and his medical residency at the Medical College of Pennsylvania. He the did a research fellowship in transplantation immunology in the Division of Nephrology and Immunolgy at the Unversity of Alberta, Canada. Afterwards, he joined the combined renal fellowship program at MGH/BWH as a clinical fellow. His major research and clnical interests are in the field of renal transplantation and immunologic tolerance.

Garner Haupert, M.D.
Dr. Haupert received his MD degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. He worked as a physician in a bush hospital in West Africa, and following internship at Presbyterian Hospital in New York, he spent two years as an Indian Health Service physician with the Sioux in South Dakota. He then returned to Boston to complete his residency at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. He moved to the MGH for his clinical and research fellowship in Nephrology. His research concentrates on the chemical, biochemical and physiologic characterization of a novel steroid compound extracted from hypothalamus which is a potent inhibitor of the mammalian Na-K ATPase, and is felt to be a mammalian analog of the plant-derived cardiac glycosides with a regulatory role in sodium reabsorption, blood pressure regulation, and cardiac performance. His clinical interests involve Na metabolism, electrolyte disorders and hypertension.

Choli Hartono, M.D.
Dr. Choli Hartono obtained his MD degree from Boston University. After completing a residency in internal medicine in Graduate Hospital, affiliated with U Penn, he moved to Cornell where obtained his fellowship training in Nephrology followed by a fellowship in Medical Transplantation. Dr. Hartono joined the faculty of Cornell University as Instructor, then promoted to Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine in July, 2005 and joined the Nephrology Division at MGH in July 2006. He received the Fujisawa Fellowship Award and a Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Transplantation. Dr. Hartono is interested in medical renal transplantation, with his reserach focusing on urinary markers of renal allogrfat rejection.

Eliot Heher, M.D.
Dr. Heher obtained his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He recieved his internal medicine residency training at Johns Hopkins Hospital and his fellowship in nephrology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He is active in clinical teaching. His major areas of interest are the management of chronic kidney disease and medical renal transplantation.

J. Michael Lazarus, M.D.
Dr. Lazarus received his MD and residency training from Tulane University in New Orleans. He did his fellowship in nephrology at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, where he served as Director of Hemodialysis services for many years before joining Fresenius Medical Care as its Medical Director. His major clinical and research interests are in the area of hemodialysis and its metabolic complications.

Herbert Y. Lin, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Lin obtained his M.D. in the Harvard-MIT program in Health Science and Technology and his Ph.D. in biology at MIT. He completed his medical residency training and renal fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He is interested in the biology of TGF-ß and its receptors and their role in the renal response to injury. His clinical interest is in the area of renal fibrosis.

John L. Niles, M.D.
Dr. Niles obtained his medical degree from the University of Oregon and did his internal medicine residency at Johns Hopkins University. He did his fellowship in nephrology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He is a part-time member of the Unit, and is active in clinical teaching. His major area of interest is ANCA associated diseases and CVVH.

Jochen Reiser, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Reiser graduated with an M.D., Ph.D. degree from the Ruprecht Karls University of Heidelberg, Germany. His Ph.D. thesis focused on the molecular and cellular biology of kidney podocytes. He did his fellowship in nephrology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. His major research and clinical interests are in the area of proteinuria and nephrosis.

David JR Steele , M.D.
Dr. Steele received his MB. BCh degree in '81 from the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He did a residency in Internal medicine at the Milton S Hershey Medical Center in Pennsylvania, and his renal fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Steele is the Director of Outpatient Renal Services. His major interest is in interactive clinical teaching, and providing renal care in the outpatient setting.

Karen Vossen Smirnakis, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Vossen Smirnakis graduated with an M.D., Ph.D. degree from Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in 1997.  She then completed her internship, residency, and renal fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital. After her renal fellowship, she served as Chief Medical Resident at the MGH. Dr. Voseen Smirnakis also completed a Masters of Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health during her fellowship. major research interests are in gestational diabetes and preeclampsia, and risk factors for mortality in dialysis patients.

Ravi Thadhani, M.D., MPH,
Dr. Thadhani obtained his MD degree from the University of Pennsylvania and completed his internship, residency, and fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital. After his renal fellowship, he served as Chief Medical Resident at the MGH. Dr. Thadhani also obtained a Masters in Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. His major research and clinical interests are in the area of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Dr Thadhani serves as director of the Clinical Research program in the Nephrology Division.

Samuel O. Thier, M.D.
Dr. Thier received his medical degree from the State University of New York at Syracusel. He served on the medical staff of Massachusetts General Hospital, as an intern, resident, chief resident in Medicine and chief of the Renal Unit. He then served as Vice Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, then joined the faculty of Yale in 1975, where he served as Chairman of Medicine for 11 years. From 1991-1994, he served as Brandeis University’s president, then president of the Massachusetts General Hospital (1994-1997). He then served as president and chief executive officer of Partners HealthCare System from 1996-2002. He served six years as president of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He serves currently as senior physician with interests in general nephrology, fluid and electrolyte disturbances, kidney stones and health care policy.

Nina Tolkoff-Rubin, M.D.
Dr. Rubin did her medical training at Harvard Medical School and her residency in medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She did her renal fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital and is the Medical Director of Hemodialysis, Chronic Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis and Transplant services. She is on the Massachusetts General Hospital Physicians Organization Executive Board. Her major areas of research interest include: biocompatibility of dialysis membranes; pharmacological approaches to acute renal failure and delayed graft function; CMV in renal allograftrecipients; chronic allograft nephropathy; Hepatitis C; anticardiolipin syndrome in renal transplant recipients; and acute humoral rejection-new approaches to diagnosis and therapy.

Winfred W. Williams Jr., M.D.
Dr. Williams obtained his MD degree at New York University School of Medicine. He completed his residency and his nephrology fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His research interests include clinical investigations in transplantation, including clinical utility of renal allograft biopsy, and acute and chronic rejection in renal allograft. He is currently initiating clinical investigations in the use of bio-artificial hepatic assist devices in liver transplantation, and is interested in the effect of pre-transplant renal function on liver allograft outcome.

Myles Wolf, M.D., MMSc
Dr. Wolf obtained his MD degree from the State University of New York and completed his internship, residency, and fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Wolf also obtained a Masters degree in clinical and physiological investigation from the Harvard School of Public Health. His major research and clinical interests are in the areas of hypertension, acute renal failure and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.

Waichi Wong, M.D.
Dr. Wong obtained her MD and MPH degrees from Yale University. She obtained her renal fellowship training at the Massachusetts General Hospital and did an extra year of specialization in renal transplantation. Dr. Wong's research and clinical interests are in the area of immunosuppression and management of organ rejection.