Stefan Somlo

The goal of our laboratory is to understand the human polycystic diseases of the kidney and liver so that specific treatments can be developed. As a group, these diseases result in the progressive disruption of the normal structure and function of the affected organs leading to the symptoms that patients experience. To achieve our goal, we begin by discovering the genes responsible for these diseases in patient families and then proceed to studying the functions of the protein products of these genes in cells and tissues. We have discovered nine genes for the polycystic diseases so far and we are working to understand how they normally work together to prevent disease from occurring. As we understand more and more about the normal functions of these human disease genes, we expect to successfully translate this understanding into specific treatments for patients and families affected by polycystic kidney and liver diseases.