Specialization
Pediatric nephrology, Genetic kidney diseases, Metabolic kidney diseases, Cystinosis, Renal tubular diseases, Kidney transplantation, Kidney regeneration, Kidney stem cells, Gene therapy
Focus of research
Elena Levtchenko focuses her research on unravelling disease mechanisms and finding the best treatments for children with genetic kidney disorders and kidney failure. She has developed a non-invasive methodology for deriving human kidney cells from uirne of the patients and healthy people allowing to establish novel models and testing new therapies.
Dr. Levtchenko has devoted her carreer to nephropathic cystinosis, a rare lysosomal storage disease, primary affecting the kidney. More recently, she discovered a new type of kidney stem cells that can be isolated from urine of preterm neonates who were born before the completion of nephrogenesis and has shown that these cells have potential to regenerate adult kidneys.