Malgorzata Kasztan

Malgorzata Kasztan is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, conducting translational research on blood and renal pathophysiology with focus on iron homeostasis, chronic kidney disease, and sickle cell disease.

She received her PhD from the Medical University of Gdansk, Poland, and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Her current research program investigates:

• Molecular mechanisms of endothelin system-mediated renal iron handling in murine iron overload models,
• Renal dysfunction mechanisms in sickle cell trait, and
• Risk factors for early chronic kidney disease progression in pediatric sickle cell patients.

Collaborative work with Dr. Lebensburger identified predictors of long-term kidney insufficiency and revealed significant sex differences in sickle cell nephropathy progression across human and murine studies, establishing the endothelin system's critical role in renal complications.

Dr. Kasztan's laboratory actively advances understanding of renal pathophysiology in hemoglobinopathies and kidney disorders through rigorous preclinical and clinical translational approaches.