Quaggin named winner of the John P. Peters Award

SQI member Susan Quaggin has won the 2024 John P. Peters Award, the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) announced. Named after one of the founders of the field of nephrology, this prestigious award recognizes individuals who have made substantial research contributions to the discipline of nephrology and have sustained achievements in one or more domains of academic medicine including clinical care, education and leadership.

“I am incredibly honored to receive this award,” said Quaggin, the Irving S. Cutter Professor and chair of Medicine at Northwestern University and director of the Feinberg Cardiovascular and Renal Research Institute. 

“Most of all, this award belongs to all those I have been privileged to work alongside and learn from over my many years in the field of nephrology: my colleagues, mentees and mentors and, most importantly, the patients who continue to inspire me every day. Like many in our field and as stated in ASN’s vision, I share our common goal to achieve ‘a world without kidney diseases’.”

Quaggin has conducted extensive research related to kidney and vascular health, and her discoveries related to vascular endothelial growth factor led to connections between growth factor inhibition and thrombotic microangiopathy and kidney failure. Her work has inspired new protocols for renal assessments and led to new insight into pre-eclampsia, and improved treatments for patients who are at high risk for cardiovascular mortality because of kidney disease.

Quaggin is the immediate past president of the ASN and an elected councilor of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. She earned her medical degree from the University of Toronto and completed a fellowship in nephrology at the University of Toronto as well as two post-doctoral fellowships, one in molecular biology of kidney development in the Igarashi Lab at Yale University and one in mouse genetics with the Rossant Lab at the University of Toronto.

Quaggin has published more than 180 peer-reviewed articles and is the deputy editor of The Journal of Clinical Investigation, the coeditor of Seldin and Geibisch: The Kidney, and coeditor of the pathophysiology section of Current Opinion in Nephrology and Hypertension Renal Physiology. She was previously recognized by the American Heart Association in 2012 with the Donald Seldin Lectureship Award and in 2021 with a Distinguished Scientist Award, and was co-recipient of the Grand Prix Scientifique 2023 from the Fondation Lefoulon-Delalande. She was recently elected a member of the National Academy of Medicine and is also a member of the National Academy of Inventors and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Note: This article was first published by the Feinberg School of Medicine.