Susztak Lab

Research Platforms

Research Platforms: The Susztak Lab Discovery Ecosystem

The Susztak Lab has engineered a synergistic set of research platforms that enable large-scale, hypothesis-driven discovery directly in human kidney disease. These platforms integrate deep molecular resolution with longitudinal clinical outcomes and AI-enabled synthesis, providing a foundation for all scientific programs in the laboratory.

1. Human Kidney Biobank: The Molecular Foundation

The Power: This platform overcomes the "scarcity bottleneck" in nephrology by     providing one of the world's most deeply phenotyped human kidney repositories  (n>4,600).

•  Key Innovation: We integrate "Honest Broker" curated clinical data with multi-modal   preservation—including Fresh Frozen, FFPE, RNALater, and Primary Cell cultures. This enables the simultaneous study of kidney structure, cellular function, and underlying genetics from the same patient.

• Scientific Reach: The biobank supports unbiased discovery across the entire molecular and structural spectrum: genomics, epigenomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and pathomics.

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2. TRIDENT: Longitudinal Precision for Diabetes

• The Power: Transformative Research in Diabetic Nephropathy (TRIDENT) moves beyond cross-sectional "snapshots" to capture the dynamic molecular trajectory of Diabetic Kidney Disease (DKD).

• Deep Phenotyping: This multi-center, prospective cohort follows individuals with diabetes, pairing longitudinal tissue collection with non-invasive biofluids (urine and plasma).

• Translational Impact: TRIDENT enables high-resolution patient stratification and the discovery of biomarkers that predict therapeutic response and disease progression long before clinical decline occurs.

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3. Penn Medicine Kidney Biobank: Health-System Scale Validation

• The Power: This platform extends discovery beyond individual cohorts by providing health-system–scale breadth and population diversity.

• EHR Integration: By linking kidney tissue and biofluids to Electronic Health Record (EHR) data across the entire Penn Medicine system, we enable large-scale outcome analyses and real-world clinical validation.

• Generalizability: This scale ensures that molecular discoveries are robust and applicable across a broad, diverse patient population and various stages of kidney disease.

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4. NephroBase: The AI Analytical Engine

• The Power: NephroBase is our kidney-specific computational and AI platform that serves as the analytical "brain," connecting clinical, imaging, and molecular data across all other platforms.

• Next-Gen Capabilities:

  • Unified Latent Representations: Standardizing cell states across 70+ kidney cell types to enable seamless cross-platform integration.

  • Zero-Shot & Transfer Learning: Utilizing AI to apply knowledge from large-scale reference atlases to specific clinical contexts.

  • Predictive Modeling: Moving from description to automated prediction of disease progression, pathology quantification, and therapeutic target prioritization.

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