Coffman, Thomas M

Research Interests:

Diabetic nephropathy, the role of the kidney in hypertension, prostanoids as mediators of hypertension and kidney injury

Dr. Thomas Coffman is James R. Clapp Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Division of Nephrology, and Senior Vice-Chair in the Department of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Coffman graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and obtained his M.D. from the Ohio State University School of Medicine. He undertook his internal medicine and nephrology training at Duke. A national leader in the field of nephrology, Dr. Coffman is Past-President of the American Society of Nephrology. He is also a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians, and served on the Nephrology Subspecialty Board of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM). He serves on a number of editorial boards including Physiological Reviews and Cell Metabolism. He is a Fellow of the Councils for High Blood Pressure Research and the Kidney in Cardiovascular Disease of the American Heart Association, and serves on the Leadership Committee for the AHA Council for High Blood Pressure Research. Dr. Coffman’s research interests include the renin-angiotensin and prostanoid systems and their role in regulating blood pressure, kidney function, and renal inflammation. He is also a member of the NIH-funded Animal Models of Diabetes Complications Consortium. His laboratory work is supported by grants from the NIH and the Department of Veterans'Affairs.

Selected Publications:

Crowley SD, Gurley SB, Oliverio MI, Pazmino AK, Griffiths R, Flannery PJ, Spurney RF, Kim H-S, Smithies O, Le TH, Coffman TM. Distinct roles for the kidney and systemic tissues in blood pressure regulation by the renin-angiotensin system. J Clin Invest 2005; 115:1092-9.

Francois H, Athirakul K, Howell D, Dash R, Mao L, Kim HS, Rockman HA, FitzGerald GA, Koller BH, Coffman TM. Prostacyclin protects against elevated blood pressure and cardiac fibrosis. Cell Metabolism 2005; 2:201-207.

Gurley SB, Allred A, Le TH, Griffiths R, Mao L, Donoghue M, Breitbart RE, Acton SL, Rockman HA, Coffman TM. Altered blood pressure responses with normal cardiac function in ACE2-null mice. J Clin Invest 2006; 116:2218-25.

Crowley SD, Gurley SB, Herrera MJ, Ruiz P, Griffiths R, Kumar AP, Kim H-S, Smithies O, Le TH, Coffman TM. Angiotensin II causes hypertension and cardiac hypertrophy via its receptors in the kidney. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2006; 103:17985-90.

Crowley SD, Vasievich MP, Ruiz P, Gould SK, Parsons KK, Pazmino AK, Facemire C, Chen BJ, Kim HS, Tran TT, Pisetsky DS, Barisoni L, Prieto-Carrasquero MC, Jeansson M, Foster MH, Coffman TM. Glomerular type 1 (AT1) angiotensin receptors augment kidney injury and inflammation in autoimmune nephritis. J Clin Invest 2009; 119: 943-53.

Facemire CS, Griffiths R, Audoly LP, Koller BH, Coffman TM. The impact of microsomal prostaglandin E synthase 1 (mPGES1) on blood pressure is determined by genetic background. Hypertension 2010; 55(2):531-8.

Gurley SB, Mach CL, Stegbauer J, Yang J, Snow KS, Hu A, Meyer TW, Coffman TM. Influence of Genetic Background on Albuminuria and Kidney Injury in Ins2+/C96Y (Akita) Mice. Am J Physiol Renal 2010; 298(3):F788-95.