Sumant Singh Chugh is the Dr. Andrew and Peg Thomson Professor and Executive Vice Chairman of Medicine at Rush University, Chicago, and Principal Investigator of the Glomerular Disease Therapeutics Laboratory (GDTL). He is a prior recipient of the Max Cooper Award,and has been funded through the NIH for over a decade and a half. The GDTL develops mechanism based novel therapeutic agents for the treatment of of chronic kidney disease caused by glomerular disorders. His laboratory described podocyte secreted  Angiopoietin-like-4 as the major molecular mediator of glucocorticoid-sensitive human and experimental minimal change disease, and also identified defective sialylation of this protein as a major correctable defect in this disease (Nature Medicine 2011). Based on his studies, oral supplementation with sialic acid or its precursors have been patented by Dr. Chugh and are being developed to treat some forms of nephrotic syndrome. He also described the molecular basis of hypertriglyceridemia in nephrotic syndrome (Nature Medicine 2014) and has been awarded patents on the use of mutated forms of human Angiopoietin-like 4 to treat chronic kidney disease caused by diabetic nephropathy and focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis. The GDTL conducted pioneering studies on the role of the Zinc Fingers and Homeoboxes (ZHX) family of proteins in podocyte gene regulation (JBC 2006) and is currently investigating the role of ZHX2 in the development of podocyte disease. Additional ongoing research efforts include defining key components of the circulating glomerulophilic proteome that could be manipulated for therapeutic purposes.