Daria Ilatovskaya, MS, PhD

I am an associate professor of medicine in the division of nephrology at Augusta University in Georgia. I am an active member of APS, and currently serve as the Treasurer of the APS Renal Section. My lab is working to improve our understanding of the mechanisms of kidney disease that result from high blood pressure, or hypertension. We do research at all levels—from whole body all the way to the processes that happen inside the cells. In addition to my research endeavors, I lecture medical and graduate students, write scientific papers, share our data at conferences and mentor trainees in my lab.

By 2025, 1.56 billion people worldwide are predicted to have high blood pressure. In 2011-2012 in the U.S. alone, about a third of all people over the age of 20 were diagnosed with high blood pressure and took medications to control it. It is essential that we understand why these numbers are increasing, and how to prevent and treat hypertension. Among many things that increase our blood pressure, a diet containing a lot of salt (the so-called Western diet) is one of the top problems. We are interested in how our bodies—and especially the kidney—handle fluids and salt, and would like to harness this knowledge to help those suffering from hypertension by coming up with new treatments.

This is a very hard question. Science is my life… but not all of it. I am very interested in legislation (in the context of scientific advocacy) and animal research policy, and I would enjoy pursuing these as alternative careers. If these paths were not available to me, I would be a struggling (but eventually famous!) writer of sci-fi or fantasy novels. This would also make a great retirement pastime in 30+ years!