Rate My Professor Tianxin Yang

Tianxin Yang, MD/PhD, is Professor of Medicine with Tenure and the Dialysis Research Foundation Endowed Chair in the Division of Nephrology & Hypertension at the University of Utah School of Medicine. He serves as Adjunct Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Integrative Physiology and Senior Research Career Scientist at the VA Salt Lake Health Care System. Dr. Yang obtained his MD from Sun Yat-sen University of Medical Sciences in China, PhD in Renal Physiology from Tokyo Medical and Dental University in Japan, completed residency training at Peking Union Medical College, and postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan. Before joining the University of Utah faculty in 2002, he held positions as Senior Staff Fellow and Staff Scientist at the National Institutes of Health. His laboratory investigates the molecular mechanisms of renal electrolyte and fluid metabolism and blood pressure control, emphasizing prostaglandins including COX-2 and mPGES-1-derived PGE2, the (pro)renin receptor and soluble (pro)renin receptor, and PPARγ signaling in the distal nephron and collecting duct. These efforts target hypertension, chronic kidney disease, and metabolic syndrome, utilizing conditional knockout models, radiotelemetry blood pressure monitoring, and translational approaches to develop novel therapies.

Dr. Yang has earned recognition through the 2024 Donald Seldin Lecture Award from the American Heart Association Council on the Kidney in Cardiovascular Disease, the 2016 Lewis K. Dahl Memorial Lecture, selection to the Board of Consulting Editors for Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight, and funding from VA Merit Review and NIH R01 grants from NIDDK. Notable publications include "Mediation of tubuloglomerular feedback by adenosine: evidence from mice lacking adenosine 1 receptors" (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2001), "Collecting duct-specific deletion of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ blocks thiazolidinedione-induced fluid retention" (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2005), "Vascular PPARγ controls circadian variation in blood pressure and heart rate through Bmal1" (Cell Metabolism, 2008), "Regulation of cyclooxygenase expression in the kidney by dietary salt intake" (American Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiology, 1998), and "Physiology and pathophysiology of the intrarenal renin-angiotensin system: an update" (Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, 2017). His research has amassed over 8,000 citations, advancing understanding in renal physiology and hypertension.