Renal pathologists use a combination of microscopic methods, including light, immunofluorescence, and electron microscopy, to analyze a wide range of non-neoplastic diseases of the native kidney in adults and pediatric patients. (The images below are of a biopsy from a patient with membranous glomerulonephritis, an autoimmune disease.)  The same group of pathologists is also responsible for renal transplant biopsies. Renal tumors are analyzed by our Genitourinary Pathology section (see separate subspecialty listing).

Faculty

David  N. Howell, MD, PhD   (919-681-3952)  has been practicing renal pathology for almost 30 years.  He also specializes in the interpretation of biopsies from other solid organ transplants, including lung, heart, liver, pancreas, and small bowel.  His interests include heritable diseases of the renal glomerulus and infectious diseases in transplant patients.

Anne F. Buckley, MD, PhD  (919-613-3791), in addition to practicing renal pathology, is a neuropathologist and head of the Muscle Pathology Service.  Dr. Buckley is also Medical Director of the Clinical Electron Microscopy Laboratory.  Her basic research centers on brain neoplasia and development, but she also participates in translational research on muscle disorders, and basic research on hypertension and diabetes in animal models of renal disease, with other research groups at Duke.