Area of Expertise: Kidney Disease
Area of Expertise: Minority Health - Internal Medicine/ Nephrology
Area of Expertise: Nephrology
Barry I. Freedman, MD, FACP
John H. Felts, III Professor and Chief, Nephrology
Freedman is an active clinician-researcher whose research focuses on genetic causes of kidney and cardiovascular disease, hypertension and type 2 diabetes, particularly in African-Americans; as well as clinical outcomes in chronic kidney disease and after renal transplantation. He has helped Wake Forest Baptist amass one of the world’s largest single-center collections of DNA samples from African-Americans with kidney disease and diabetes. He and colleagues at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases reported the role of the APOL1 gene as a major risk factor for kidney failure in African-Americans. Variants in APOL1 contribute to approximately 40 percent of all end-stage kidney disease in this population. Freedman’s research challenged long-held beliefs about hypertension as a cause of kidney disease in African-Americans. His work proved that hypertension often results from primary APOL1-related kidney disease and that hypertension is not the inciting cause of kidney disease. He is listed in Best Doctors in America and US News and World Report’s Top Doctors.
Faculty Profile, Research and Publications