Denise Marciano, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor

Denise Marciano earned her bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College. She received her Ph.D. in Cellular Biophysics at the Rockefeller University and her M.D. at Cornell University. She completed the rest of her medical training at the University of California San Francisco, where she became drawn to caring for patients with kidney disease. At that time, she also developed a passion for research on how the kidney develops and functions. Lured by the opportunity to meld her clinical and scientific interests, she joined the faculty in Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern in 2011. She is also an attending physician at Parkland Memorial Hospital, where she sees patients with renal disease. Dr. Marciano’s interests outside of medicine and research include spending time with her family, hiking, and cooking.

The goal of Dr. Marciano’s research is to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms that drive kidney development and repair after injury. 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 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 structure and function
• Kidney development and disease
• Tubulogenesis

Featured Publications

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

Uromodulin regulates renal magnesium homeostasis through the ion channel transient receptor potential melastatin 6 (TRPM6).

Nie M, Bal MS, Liu J, Yang Z, Rivera C, Wu XR, Hoenderop JGJ, Bindels RJM, Marciano DK, Wolf MTF J. Biol. Chem. 2018 Aug

• Elected to American Society of Clinical Investigation
  (2020)
• Fellow of the American Society of Nephrology
  (2017)
• March of Dimes Basil O'Connor Scholar
  (2013)
• Norman S. Coplon Extramural Grant
  (2013)
• K08 and NKF Young Investigator Awards
  (2008)
• NRSA F32 grant
  (2005)
• Janet M. Glasgow Memorial Achievement Award
  Graduated in top ten students at Cornell Univ Medical College (2001)
• Magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, Dartmouth College
  (1993)

• American Heart Association (2014)
• American Society of Nephrology
• National Kidney Foundation