Ashley Zehnder
CEO Fauna Bio
Seminars
Tuesday 17th March 2026
Translating Natural Models of Disease Resistance and Regeneration into Novel Therapeutic Modalities in Cardiorenal & Metabolic Disease
11:40 am
- How natural biology of hibernators mimic chronic/acute kidney injury (AKI) and observing how renal tissues recover function despite damage that occurs every two weeks over a 6 month hibernation cycle
- How spiny mice (Acomys) regenerate severely injured nephrons without fibrosis and what gene signatures / transcription-programs underlie that response
- Insights from camel kidney studies: how extreme dehydration followed by rapid rehydration modulates oxidative stress, apoptosis, expression of aquaporins and solute carrier (SLC) proteins, and preserves kidney cortical/medullary structure
- Strategies for leveraging organismal resilience to derive robust human kidney signatures, in parallel with programs in heart failure and obesity (e.g. with Eli Lilly), to identify novel therapeutic targets
