My research centers on the etiology, pathogenesis, and diagnostic evaluation of kidney diseases, with a particular emphasis on disorders affecting children. Current and prior work spans genetic forms of childhood proteinuria, diabetic nephropathy, IgA nephropathy, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), and Mesoamerican nephropathy (chronic kidney disease of unknown origin)—a progressive, endemic condition leading to kidney failure among agricultural workers in tropical regions. Working on another organ- a transplanted pancreas in patients with diabetes type 1 – we performed a detailed immunologic analysis of pancreas allograft biopsy tissue that allowed us to propose treatment strategies to improve graft outcomes.
The Laboratory of Nephropathology collaborates closely with the UNC Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, integrating conventional nephropathology with advanced microscopy and research techniques to support translational studies across a broad spectrum of kidney diseases.
Selected Publications
Abdelrahman, A., Vincent, C., Lyalin, D., Mikhailov, A. Unusual glomerular abnormalities in a patient with combined COL4A5 – NPHS1 variants. Kidney Medicine 2026, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xkme.2026.101266.
Maike Büttner-Herold M.D.*, Surya V. Seshan M.D, Ivan Archilla M.D., Alexei Mikhailov, M.D., John C. Papadimitriou, M.D.,Ph.D., Krystof Gryzb, M.D., Karine Renaudin M.D., Hector Mesa-Corrales M.D., Saryn Doucette, M.D., Daniel Zaccarin, M.D., Autumn LaRocque M.D., Rashmi M. Agni, M.D., Abdolreza Haririan, M.D, Billie Fyfe-Kirschner, M.D., Maria Fernanda Toniolo M.D., Diego Cantarovich, M.D. , Pablo Uva M.D., Gervasio Soler Pujol, M.D., Alton B. Farris, M.D., Richard Ugarte, M.D., Pooja Budhiraja M.D., Raphael Meier M.D., Silke Niederhaus M.D., Robert Stratta M.D., Jon Odorico M.D., Candice Roufusse, M.D., Ventura, Pedro M.D. and Cinthia B. Drachenberg M.D. BANFF 2024 PANCREAS TRANSPLANTATION REPORT: Diagnosis and impact of chronic active T-cell mediated allograft rejection, re-evaluation of the indeterminate category and utilization of CD3/CD68 immunostains in biopsies with ambiguous findings. SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5311595
Ibrahim Batal, Alexei V. Mikhailov, Syed A. Husain, Rachel A Nuccitelli, Lili Liu, Tze Y.Lim, Francesca Zanoni, Sumit Mohan, Lanny T. DiFranza, Satoru Kudose, Dominick Santoriello, Michael B. Stokes, Glen S Markowitz, Lloyd E. Ratner, Vivette D. D’Agati, Elena-Rodica Vasilescu, Kevin L Gardner KevinL, Simone Sanna-Cherchi, Barry I. Freedman, Krzysztof Kiryluk, and Alejandra M. Mena Gutierrez. Association of collapsing glomerulopathy with donor apolipoproyein L1 risk variants in kidney allografts from black donors. CJASN, 20(9); 1268-1276.
Drachenberg C., Buttner-Herold M., Ventura-Aguiar, P., Horsfield C., Mikhailov A., Paradimitriou J., Seshan S., Perosa M., Boggi U., Uva, P., Rickels M., Grzyb K., Arend L., Cuatrecases M., Toniolo M., Farris A., Renaudin-Autain, K., Zhang L., Roufosse C., Gruessner A., Kandaswamy R., White S., Burke G., Cantarovich D., Parsons R., Copper M., Kudva Y., Kukla A., Harriran A., Parajuli S., Merino-Torres J., Argente-Pla, M., Meier R., Dunn T., Ugarte R., Rao J., Vistoli F., Stratta R., Odorico J. Banff 2022 pancreas transplantation multidisciplinary report: refinement of guidelines for TCMR, AMR, Islet and non-rejection pathologies, assessment of duodenal cuff biopsies and non-invasive diagnostic methods. Am J Transpl 2024, 23(3): 362-379.
Mikhailov A., Liu Y., Cheng H-J., Cheng D.P., Lin, J.J. Calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II activation promotes kidney mesangial expansion in streptozotocin-induced diabetic mice. Heliyon, 2022 Nov: 8(11):e11653.
Krendel M., Garone M., Edwards-Richards A., Lin J-J., Mikhailov A. FSGS and proteinuria associated with Myo1E mutations: novel compound heterozygous variants and histologic phenotype analysis. Pediatric Nephology, 2022, doi: 10.1007/s00467-022-05634-x.
