Christian Hanna, M.D., M.S.

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SUMMARY

Christian Hanna, M.D., M.S., studies pediatric cystic kidney disease, including autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPKD), and other causes of cystic kidney disease in children and adolescents. He is a member of the Mayo Translational Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) Center and the medical director of Mayo Clinic's Pediatric Cystic Kidney Disease Clinic, which provides comprehensive care to pediatric patients with cystic kidney disease. Dr. Hanna also conducts research studies and clinical trials to discover promising biomarkers for disease progression and evaluate new treatments for cystic kidney disease.

Focus areas

• Genotype-to-phenotype characterization in ADPKD, ARPKD and other cystic kidney diseases. Cystic kidney diseases have variable phenotypes among family members. Using the large database of patients at Mayo Clinic, Dr. Hanna studies the effects of pathogenic variants of pediatric cystic kidney disease on multiple extrarenal manifestations.
• Role of urinary-crystal burden in cystogenesis and disease progression in ADPKD. There is an unmet need to better characterize biomarkers for predicting ADPKD progression in pediatric populations, to identify therapeutic targets and stratify patients for preemptive treatment. Dr. Hanna aims to understand if increased urinary-crystalluria burden increases the risk for more progressive ADPKD in children and young adults.
• Collaborative research with other basic, translational and clinical researchers at the Mayo Translational PKD Center. This work focuses on metabolic fingerprinting and methylation of circulating cell-free DNA in pediatric patients with ADPKD. Dr. Hanna and colleagues also use 3D ultrasound and MR imaging studies for measuring total kidney volume in pediatric ADPKD.

Significance to patient care

Dr. Hanna is dedicated to the discovery of novel biomarkers for disease progression and therapies with the goal of preventing pediatric patients with ADPKD from progressing to kidney failure as adults.