Robert Toto, M.D.
Associate Dean, Translational Science
Professor

Robert Toto, M.D., is the Mary M. Conroy Professor of Kidney Disease in UT Southwestern’s Department of Internal Medicine and a member of its Division of Nephrology. He specializes in kidney disease treatment and research.

Dr. Toto also is the Associate Dean of Clinical and Translational Research in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences; the Director of the Center for Translational Medicine; and the Medical Director of UT Southwestern’s Multi-Specialty Clinic. He is a Distinguished Teaching Professor and holds the Mary M. Conroy Professorship in Kidney Disease.

Dr. Toto earned his medical degree at the University of Illinois Medical School. He completed a residency in internal medicine at the University of Michigan and Baylor College of Medicine and then received advanced training in nephrology through fellowships at the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital and UT Southwestern Medical Center. He joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 1983.

Dr. Toto has been named a D Magazine Best Doctor for nephrology and hypertension every year since 2009 and has been named a Texas Monthly Super Doctor multiple times, including in 2018.

He is nationally and internationally known for clinical research and teaching. He has been awarded numerous teaching awards from medical students and residents at UT Southwestern and is a regular speaker at national and international nephrology meetings on a variety of topics in renal disease. He has served on program committees for the American Society of Nephrology, the International Congress of Nephrology, and the National Kidney Foundation and is actively involved with training and research policy development at the national level through the American Society of Nephrology and the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Toto’s research interests include detection, prevention, and treatment of progressive kidney diseases, including diabetes and hypertension. He has an active laboratory and has been intimately involved in the design and conduct of phase I clinical trials as well as several major outcomes trials in patients with chronic kidney disease, including NIH- and non-federally funded trials (e.g., the AASK trial, the HEMO study, and TREAT).

He has authored more than 100 original articles and textbook chapters related to diagnosis and management of hypertension and kidney diseases. His published work includes pathophysiology of hypertensive and diabetic renal diseases, dyslipidemia in chronic kidney disease, novel risk factors for diabetic nephropathy, anemia in patients with chronic kidney disease and dialysis-related morbidity and mortality, and other complications of kidney disease. In addition, he has served on the editorial boards of Kidney International, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, American Journal of Kidney Disease and Nephrology, American Journal of Nephrology, Nephrology Dialysis and Transplantation, and Current Opinion in Nephrology and Hypertension.

Medical School

University of Illinois/Chicago Medical Center (1977)

Internship

University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers (1978), Medicine

Residency

University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers (1979), Medicine

Residency

Baylor College of Medicine (1980), Medicine

Fellowship

U.S. Public Health Service Hospital (1981), Nephrology

Fellowship

UT Southwestern Medical Center (1983), Nephrology

• Cardiovascular Morbidity and Mortality in Chronic Kidney Disease
• Diabetic Nephropathy Pathogenesis and Treatment
• Hemodialysis Techniques and Management
• Hypertension in Chronic Kidney Disease

Featured Publications

Potassium handling with dual Renin-Angiotensin system inhibition in diabetic nephropathy.

Van Buren PN, Adams-Huet B, Nguyen M, Molina C, Toto RD Clin J Am Soc Nephrol 2014 Feb 9 2 295-301

Bardoxolone Methyl in Type 2 Diabetes and Stage 4 Chronic Kidney Disease.

de Zeeuw D, Akizawa T, Audhya P, Bakris GL, Chin M, Christ-Schmidt H, Goldsberry A, Houser M, Krauth M, Heerspink HJ, McMurray JJ, Meyer CJ, Parving HH, Remuzzi G, Toto RD, Vaziri ND, Wanner C, Wittes J, Wrolstad D, Chertow GM N. Engl. J. Med. 2013 Nov

The pathogenesis and management of hypertension in diabetic kidney disease.

Van Buren PN, Toto RD Med. Clin. North Am. 2013 Jan 97 1 31-51

Current update in the management of diabetic nephropathy.

Van Buren PN, Toto R Curr Diabetes Rev 2013 Jan 9 1 62-77

A trial of 2 strategies to reduce nocturnal blood pressure in blacks with chronic kidney disease.

Rahman M, Greene T, Phillips RA, Agodoa LY, Bakris GL, Charleston J, Contreras G, Gabbai F, Hiremath L, Jamerson K, Kendrick C, Kusek JW, Lash JP, Lea J, Miller ER, Rostand S, Toto R, Wang X, Wright JT, Appel LJ Hypertension 2013 Jan 61 1 82-8

Recommendations of the national football league physician society task force on the use of toradol(®) ketorolac in the national football league.

Matava M, Brater DC, Gritter N, Heyer R, Rollins D, Schlegel T, Toto R, Yates A Sports Health 2012 Sep 4 5 377-83

Probing the mechanisms of intradialytic hypertension: a pilot study targeting endothelial cell dysfunction.

Inrig JK, Van Buren P, Kim C, Vongpatanasin W, Povsic TJ, Toto R Clin J Am Soc Nephrol 2012 Aug 7 8 1300-9

Bardoxolone methyl and kidney function in CKD with type 2 diabetes.

Pergola PE, Raskin P, Toto RD, Meyer CJ, Huff JW, Grossman EB, Krauth M, Ruiz S, Audhya P, Christ-Schmidt H, Wittes J, Warnock DG N. Engl. J. Med. 2011 Jul 365 4 327-36

Intensive blood-pressure control in hypertensive chronic kidney disease.

Appel LJ, Wright JT, Greene T, Agodoa LY, Astor BC, Bakris GL, Cleveland WH, Charleston J, Contreras G, Faulkner ML, Gabbai FB, Gassman JJ, Hebert LA, Jamerson KA, Kopple JD, Kusek JW, Lash JP, Lea JP, Lewis JB, Lipkowitz MS, Massry SG, Miller ER, Norris K, Phillips RA, Pogue VA, Randall OS, Rostand SG, Smogorzewski MJ, Toto RD, Wang X N. Engl. J. Med. 2010 Sep 363 10 918-29

• Fellow, High Blood Pressure Council
  American Heart Association (1995)
• Outstanding Teacher Award
  Medical Student Class, 1992-97 (1992)
• Outstanding Teacher Award
  Housestaff of UT Southwestern (1987)
• Alpha Omega Alpha
  Medical Honor Society (1977)

• American Heart Association
• American Society of Hypertension
• American Society of Nephrology
• National Kidney Foundation
• Renal Physicians Association