Clinical Scientist in Nephrology program

Clinical Scientist in Nephrology (CSN) Fellowship application

The 2025-2026 Clinical Scientist in Nephrology (CSN) Fellowship application is now closed. Please check back in summer 2025 for the 2026-2027 CSN application. 

Click here to download a sample version of the application

Learn more about the Clinical Scientist in Nephrology (CSN) Program

For over 30 years, the American Kidney Fund Clinical Scientist in Nephrology (CSN) fellowship program has funded researchers whose work is designed to improve diagnosis, treatment and outcomes for patients living with chronic kidney disease and has promoted clinical research in nephrology. Our CSN fellows conduct prevention and outcomes research while receiving advanced training in areas related to the AKF vision.

The Clinical Scientist in Nephrology program has trained some of nephrology's brightest scholars who have gone on to become leaders in the field and mentors to new generations of scientists studying kidney disease. Many former CSN fellows have conducted groundbreaking research that advances knowledge and treatment of kidney disease.

A Clinical Scientist in Nephrology fellowship may be granted yearly, with a maximum duration of two years for each fellowship. The maximum level of funding of $90,000 per year shall be used principally to support the candidate and his or her career development. This sum is expected to cover the individual fellow's salary (not to exceed $65,000) as well as training-related expenses.

Meet our 2025 CSN Fellows

Dr. Momen Abbasi 

Dr. Abbasi is a nephrology fellow at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). He earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Jordan and completed his residency and nephrology fellowship at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. He is currently pursuing an additional nephrology fellowship at UIC. 

Dr. Abbasi is working on developing and testing non-invasive ways to assess kidney damage using advanced imaging techniques so that patients who are at a higher risk of worsening kidney function can be identified. 

Dr. Abbasi's research will use artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze imaging data from kidney Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) scans in people with kidney disease. In doing so, he hopes to identify specific patterns in kidney disease that can help predict which patients are at higher risk of worsening kidney function. This could aid in developing new treatments and potentially provide a safer alternative to kidney biopsies, which pose significant bleeding risks.

"I am honored to receive the AKF fellowship and grateful for their support. While imaging has transformed risk assessment, disease surveillance, and drug development in many fields of medicine, the potential in nephrology remains underexplored. Through this project, I aim to leverage machine learning approaches to analyze kidney functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) to develop imaging sub-phenotypes of kidney health. I hope this work will help identify high-risk patients with CKD who may benefit from targeted clinical trials that incorporate the use of non-invasive imaging modalities."

Dr. Api Chewcharat 

Dr. Chewcharat is a nephrology fellow at Brigham and Women's Hospital/Massachusetts General Hospital combined program. He earned a Master of Public Health in biostatistics and epidemiology from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health before completing his internal medicine residency at Mount Auburn Hospital/Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on kidney disease and cancer.

Dr. Chewcharat is studying whether biomarkers can be used to detect thrombotic microangiopathy (TA-TMA), a serious complication that can occur after a stem cell transplant and may severely damage the kidneys, as well as the possibility of creating a predictive tool to assess which patients with TA-TMA are at high risk of requiring dialysis and/or death. In his research, Dr. Chewcharat will examine blood samples from patients who did and did not have TA-TMA to identify if certain biomarkers can serve as early warning signals for TA-TMA. He will also create a scoring tool to help clinicians determine which patients with TA-TMA are at high risk of needing dialysis or death. The goal of Dr. Chewcharat's research is to facilitate earlier diagnosis of TA-TMA and deliver an accurate risk assessment for patients with TA-TMA to reduce adverse outcomes and improve their quality of life. 

"My research is dedicated to transforming the clinical landscape of transplant-associated thrombotic microangiopathy (TA-TMA), a devastating yet under-recognized complication of stem cell transplantation that leads to severe kidney injury and high mortality," said. Dr Chewcharat. "By developing an innovative, biomarker-driven early diagnostic strategy and a personalized risk prediction tool, I aim to identify TA-TMA before irreversible organ damage occurs and tailor interventions to mitigate the risk for dialysis or mortality and ultimately improve patients' quality of life. AKF's CSN program will provide me with the resources and collaborative network needed to bring this transformative research to clinical practice bridging key knowledge gaps in TA-TMA."

Meet our 2024 CSN Fellows

Dr. Kavita Mistry

Dr. Kavita Mistry is a nephrology fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and will be using cutting-edge single cell sequencing technologies to gain insights into the initial events that lead to kidney inflammation in acute interstitial nephritis (ICI-AIN).

Dr. Mistry's project reflects her interest in both nephrology and immunology, particularly in cancer patients. Although immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment by unleashing the power of the immune system to fight numerous cancers, its use is limited by the side effect of harmful inflammation in healthy tissues and organs. When this inflammation targets the kidneys, it causes ICI-AIN. Dr. Mistry hopes to gain insight into the events that cause this inflammation. The ultimate goal of her work is to inform the development of non-invasive tests for ICI-AIN that can be used in the diagnosis of patients in the clinic, and to facilitate improved treatments for ICI-AIN that have fewer side effects on patients as they undergo cancer treatment.

"I am delighted to join the AKF community, and to continue in the strong tradition of research supported by the AKF Clinical Scientist in Nephrology program," said Dr. Mistry. "Our work studying immune checkpoint inhibitor-associated kidney injury begins and ends with the patient, which aligns seamlessly with AKF's mission to improve the care of patients with kidney disease. We start at the bedside, where we provide clinical care to patients suffering from immunotherapy-related kidney toxicity. We then bring blood, urine and kidney tissue samples to the lab bench, where we harness the power of single cell sequencing to understand the immunologic pathways that drive harmful kidney inflammation. Ultimately, we hope to use our discoveries to directly impact the way that we diagnose and treat patients with kidney injury. What excites me the most is the potential for our study to yield insights into the mechanisms of more common kidney diseases, including other types of interstitial nephritis and kidney injury that affect even greater numbers of patients."

Dr. Mistry earned her Bachelor of Arts and MD/PhD degrees from Yale University. She completed her residency at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and is currently a nephrology fellow at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where she provides care for patients with kidney disease and cancer.

Dr. Marcelle Tuttle

Dr. Marcelle Tuttle is a first-year fellow in the Tufts Medical Center Division of Nephrology and will be working on research that focuses on the development of pulmonary hypertension in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). 

Dr. Tuttle's project will examine the development of early pulmonary hypertension in patients with CKD. Pulmonary hypertension is a rare disorder, affecting approximately 1% of the global population. However, it is common in patients with CKD, with approximately 21% of CKD patients having pulmonary hypertension. Also, for patients with CKD, having pulmonary hypertension is associated with double the risk of death from any cause. Using data from the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort (CRIC), Dr. Tuttle's project has two objectives: (1) to identify risk factors for progression of pulmonary hypertension in patients with chronic kidney disease and (2) to examine whether progression of pulmonary hypertension is associated with a composite of dialysis, kidney transplantation or diminished kidney function or a cardiovascular composite of heart failure, heart attack and death due to cardiovascular causes.

"Pulmonary hypertension is a common and underrecognized issue for patients with chronic kidney disease," said Dr. Tuttle. "Through this study, I plan to identify new risk factors for pulmonary hypertension in patients with chronic kidney disease. I am extraordinarily grateful to the AKF for this opportunity and hope that this study will lead to earlier identification of pulmonary hypertension in CKD patients and potentially new treatments targeted towards the CKD population."

Dr. Tuttle is a first-year fellow in the Tufts Medical Center Division of Nephrology and a master's student in Clinical and Translational Science at the Tufts University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Prior to fellowship, she received her MD from the Tufts University School of Medicine and completed residency at the Tufts Medical Center Internal Medicine Residency. Her current research focuses on the development of pulmonary hypertension in patients with chronic kidney disease.