Rujun Gong, MD, PhD, FASN is currently Professor of Medicine and Director of Kidney Research in the Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine at the University of Toledo College of Medicine or Medical College of Ohio (MCO). Besides, he also holds joint professorship at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology. Prior to his joining the University of Toledo College of Medicine in 2018, Dr. Gong had been Associate Professor of Medicine and the founding Director of Kidney Research at Brown University School of Medicine and Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, USA.  Dr. Gong completed the seven-year Medical Education Program (MD degree) at Nanjing University in Nanjing, China, and later earned his PhD degree in Renal Physiology there. The Research Institute of Nephrology at Nanjing University is the largest and premier clinical and investigative nephrology program in China. There, he received systemic and intensive residency training in internal medicine and renal fellowship training in both clinical and investigative nephrology. After that, he completed his postdoctoral research fellowship training at Brown University. In 2004, he was recruited to the Faculty of Medicine at Brown University and was later promoted to Assistant and Associate Professor there.    Dr. Gong's research interests center on pathogenesis and novel therapies of glomerular diseases, in particular podocytopathies and nephrotic syndrome and glomerulopathies; and pathogenic mechanisms of renal fibrogenesis and inflammation. His other research interests include epistasis in common kidney diseases; immunopathogenesis of lupus nephritis; transplant immune tolerance; and mechanisms of acute and chronic kidney injury, repair and regeneration. His research has been well funded by the US National Institutes of Health, private foundations and industry, and has been very active and productive with book chapters, patents and over 90 scientific papers published in high impact journals, including Nature Reviews Nephrology, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, Kidney International, Gut, Pediatrics, American Journal of Transplantation, American Journal of Kidney Disease,Journal of Biological Chemistry, Journal of Pathology, Arthritis & Rheumatology, American Journal of Pathology, etc. Dr. Gong was awarded the Young Investigator Award in 2011 by the Chinese American Society of Nephrology for his cutting-edge research on the fundamental role of GSK3 and melanocortinergic pathways in kidney disease. He is an elected Fellow of the American Society of Nephrology (FASN) and is the current Treasurer for the Chinese American Society of Nephrology. He has served as Editor-in-Chief or editorial board member for a number of nephrology and molecular biology journals, and act as study section member for a number of funding agencies, including the US National Institutes of Health, the US Department of Veterans Affair Merit Award, the UK Medical Research Council and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).