Dr. Ilse Daehn is a molecular and cell biologist with expertise in DNA damage and oxidative stress. She obtained her undergraduate in Biotechnology (Honors) and was awarded her Ph.D from the Flinders University of South Australia. She then pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at Cancer Research UK, London before joining the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 2010. She became faculty at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 2013. Her primary research interests are to understand the early molecular events involving mitochondria that occur and lead to chronic kidney disease. Her work has advance knowledge in mechanisms of cell-cell crosstalk in the glomerulus that may have implications in other vascular beds. The findings have provided a fundamental paradigm shift in our current understanding of chronic kidney disease development and is now applying this knowledge to seek for genetic risk factors and biomarkers in the urine for early detection of early disease and its progression. Dr. Daehn is especially interested in exploring and evaluating the genetic susceptibility of individuals in the community to developing progressive kidney disease. The Daehn lab team combines interdisciplinary expertise and complementary approaches to give light to novel small molecule and gene editing therapeutic strategies.

Dr. Daehn is a leader in the scientific community actively involved in encouraging networking, collaboration and innovation among young researchers (kiiln.org). She is very active in raising awareness and address the inequitable participation of people with disabilities in STEM careers and her thoughts on this matter have been recently published in Science and eLife (under revision). At the national level, Dr. Daehn serves in NIH study sections, DOD and several foundation grant review panels, several editorial boards of top journals, she an active member of Network of Minority Health Research Investigators (NMRI) a network supported by the NIDDK. She also participates in a workgroup supported by the American Association of Nephrology that aims to create resources that are specific for international trainees and early career nephrologists and scientists.