Katalin Susztak

Katalin Susztak (Suszták) is a Hungarian American scientist and nephrologist at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a professor of medicine and genetics, and currently the codirector of the Complications Unit at the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. Her laboratory made major contributions to the current understanding of kidney disease development. She is also the founder of the Transformative Research In DiabEtic NephropaThy (TRIDENT), a collaborative network of physicians and basic scientists, to find cures for diabetic kidney disease.

Early life and education

Susztak was born in Eger, Hungary. She attended the Apáczai Csere János High School, a magnet school in Budapest Hungary. She obtained her MD (1995), and PhD (1997) degrees with Summa Cum Laude from the Semmelweis University, in Budapest Hungary. She moved to the United States in 1997, where she completed an Internal Medicine residency (2000) and Nephrology fellowship (2003) at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. She also obtained a Master of Science in Clinical Research (M.S.) (2004) with distinction from Einstein College. In 2018 she became the Director of Complications Unit at the Institute of Diabetes and Metabolism. In 2016, she founded the TRIDENT consortium, a collaborative network of physicians and basic scientists, to find cures for diabetic kidney disease.

Scientific contributions

Susztak has made important discoveries towards defining critical genes, cell types and mechanisms of chronic kidney disease. She published over 160 scientific articles. Her early work demonstrated the importance of podocyte apoptosis in diabetic kidney disease development. She identified novel kidney disease genes and demonstrated the contribution of the Notch signaling pathway 2011 Young Investigator Award of the American Society of Nephrology and the Kidney Council of the American Heart Association 2020 Elected Member of the Association of American Physicians (AAP) 2021 Richards award (lifetime achievement) of the International Society of Nephrology 2021 William Osler Patient Oriented Research Award from the University of Pennsylvania