Denise Marciano, M.D., Ph.D.

Denise Marciano, M.D., Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, and a member of its Division of Nephrology. She specializes in kidney disease.

Originally from Washington, D.C., Dr. Marciano holds a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, where she graduated magna cum laude. She earned her doctorate in cellular biophysics from The Rockefeller University, and her medical degree from Weill Cornell University Medical College in New York. She completed internal medicine residency training, as well as fellowship training in nephrology, at the University of California San Francisco, where she also completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in the Louis F. Reichardt Lab.

Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in internal medicine and nephrology, she joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2011.

Dr. Marciano focuses her research on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms that drive kidney development and regeneration. She uses a variety of cellular, genetic, and biochemical approaches to study these processes in renal tubules and the filtration units of the kidney, called glomeruli. She also studies the pathogenesis of human congenital kidney abnomalities and glomerular diseases. She has received several grant awards to support her research laboratory, including awards from the March of Dimes and the NIH. More details on her research program can be found at the Marciano Research Lab.

Graduate School

Rockefeller University (1999)

Medical School

Cornell University Medical College (2001)

Residency

University of California, San Francisco (2004), Internal Medicine

Fellowship

University of California at San Francisco (2007), Nephrology

• Cell Polarity
• Glomerular Development, Structure, and Disease
• Human Congenital Kidney Diseases
• Kidney Development and Disease
• Tubule Formation

Featured Publications

Heterozygous Mutation of Vegfr3 Reduces Renal Lymphatics without Renal Dysfunction.

Liu H, Hiremath C, Patterson Q, Vora S, Shang Z, Jamieson AR, Fiolka R, Dean KM, Dellinger MT, Marciano DK, J Am Soc Nephrol 2021 Sep

Nephronectin Regulates Mesangial Cell Adhesion and Behavior in Glomeruli.

Zimmerman SE, Hiremath C, Tsunezumi J, Yang Z, Finney B, Marciano DK J. Am. Soc. Nephrol. 2018 Jan

Afadin and RhoA control pancreatic endocrine mass via lumen morphogenesis.

Azizoglu DB, Braitsch C, Marciano DK, Cleaver O Genes Dev. 2017 12 31 23-24 2376-2390

Developing renal tubules orient cell division via Afadin to position the tubule lumen.

Gao L, Yang Z, Hiremath C, Zimmerman SE, Long B, Brakeman PR, Mostov KE, Bryant DM, Luby-Phelps K, Marciano DK Development 2017 Aug

Role of CD34 family members in lumen formation in the developing kidney.

Yang Z, Zimmerman SE, Tsunezumi J, Braitsch C, Trent C, Bryant DM, Cleaver O, González-Manchón C, Marciano DK Dev. Biol. 2016 Aug

A holey pursuit: lumen formation in the developing kidney.

Marciano DK Pediatr. Nephrol. 2016 Feb

De novo lumen formation and elongation in the developing nephron: a central role for afadin in apical polarity.

Yang Z, Zimmerman S, Brakeman PR, Beaudoin GM, Reichardt LF, Marciano DK Development 2013 Mar

p120 catenin is required for normal renal tubulogenesis and glomerulogenesis.

Marciano DK, Brakeman PR, Lee CZ, Spivak N, Eastburn DJ, Bryant DM, Beaudoin GM, Hofmann I, Mostov KE, Reichardt LF Development 2011 May 138 10 2099-109

Assembling filamentous phage occlude pIV channels.

Marciano DK, Russel M, Simon SM Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2001 Jul 98 16 9359-64

An aqueous channel for filamentous phage export.

Marciano DK, Russel M, Simon SM Science 1999 May 284 5419 1516-9

• Elected Member, American Society for Clinical Investigation
  Physician-Scientist Honorary Society (2020)
• Carolyn R. Bacon Distinguished Professorship in Medical Science and Education
  UT Southwestern (2019)
• Fellow
  American Society of Nephrology (2017)
• Basil O'Connor Scholar
  March of Dimes (2013)
• Norman S. Coplon Extramural Grant
  Weil Cornell Medicine (2013)
• K08 and NKF Young Investigator Awards
  National Kidney Foundation (2008)
• National Research Service Award
  National Institutes of Health (2005)
• Janet M. Glasgow Memorial Achievement Award
  Weill Cornell University Medical College (2001)

• American Heart Association
• American Society of Nephrology
• National Kidney Foundation