Brief Description: This seminar will highlight several clinically important challenges in pediatric nephrology and critical care that may be particularly well-suited for biomedical engineering innovation. Drawing on examples from acute kidney injury, extracorporeal organ support, medical device development, and emerging opportunities in precision physiologic monitoring, the discussion will focus on opportunities for translational collaboration between clinicians and engineers.

Abstract: Many of the most important clinical decisions in nephrology and critical care continue to rely on intermittent and imperfect assessments of underlying physiology, creating opportunities for innovation at the interface of medicine and engineering. In this seminar, I will discuss several examples of unmet clinical needs that have emerged from my work as a pediatric nephrologist and physician-scientist, including long-term outcomes after pediatric acute kidney injury, challenges in extracorporeal organ support, and barriers to pediatric medical device development.

I will also explore future opportunities for translational research, including continuous physiologic fluid-state assessment, precision fluid management, adaptive extracorporeal support systems, and technology-enabled approaches to improving outcomes in children with kidney disease and critical illness. The overarching goal is to identify clinically meaningful problems that could serve as catalysts for innovative collaborations between clinicians and biomedical engineers.

Bio: Danielle E. Soranno, MD, is Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Pediatric Nephrology at Indiana University School of Medicine and Riley Hospital for Children, with adjunct faculty appointments in Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University. She received her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and M.D. from Case Western Reserve University, completed pediatric residency training at the University of Colorado, and pediatric nephrology fellowship training at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Soranno is a pediatric nephrologist, physician-scientist, and engineer whose research focuses on acute kidney injury (AKI), critical care nephrology, and extracorporeal organ support. Her work has spanned translational animal models of AKI, biomaterials-based therapies for kidney disease, and clinical investigations of the long-term renal and systemic consequences of AKI and critical illness  in children. She has a particular interest in identifying clinically important problems that can be addressed through collaboration between clinicians and engineers, including pediatric medical device development, extracorporeal support technologies, and innovations to improve outcomes for children with kidney disease. She currently co-directs Purdue University's Pediatric Medical Devices course with Dr. George Wodicka.