Katherine R. Tuttle, MD, FASN
Citation: Kidney News 15, 10/11
ASN will recognize the wide-ranging contributions of Katherine R. Tuttle, MD, FASN, with the presentation of the John P. Peters Award on Friday, November 3. This award is given for outstanding contributions to improving the lives of patients and furthering the understanding of the kidney in health and diseases.
Dr. Tuttle is executive director for research at Providence Health Care in Spokane, WA; co-principal investigator at the Institute of Translational Health Sciences; and professor of medicine at the University of Washington (UW). She oversees a regional network of 17 clinical research centers and chairs the regional executive council for UW.
Dr. Tuttle's major research interests are in diabetes and chronic kidney disease (CKD). As a clinical and translational scientist, she has published more than 300 original, peer-reviewed articles. Early in her career, she produced a landmark study elucidating physiological principles underlying glomerular hyperfiltration in humans with diabetes. This foundational work led to a number of physiological and pre-clinical studies that laid a foundation for new, therapeutic targets in clinical trials. Over more than three decades, that work helped deliver sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibition as the most impactful therapy to reduce risks of kidney failure, cardiovascular events, and death in individuals with and without diabetes.
Dr. Tuttle has also been a leading investigator for other breakthrough therapies, including incretins and anti-inflammatory agents. She led the original clinical trial that elevated glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists as potential therapeutics for CKD.
She leads the Center for Kidney Disease Research, Education and Hope (CURE-CKD) registry of real-world data for CKD, diabetes, pre-diabetes, and hypertension from nearly 4 million patients of the health system. Her work has shaped the “pillars of therapy” approach to CKD across the spectrum of scientific discovery, clinical trials, and population-level implementation.
Dr. Tuttle currently chairs the ASN Diabetic Kidney Disease Collaborative Task Force. She served on the inaugural board of directors of the Kidney Health Initiative and has chaired numerous other working groups and committees for organizations including the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Kidney Foundation (NKF), International Society of Nephrology, and American Diabetes Association. She served as associate editor of CJASN and the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.
She has received many honors including the Medal of Excellence from the American Association of Kidney Patients, Garabed Eknoyan Award from the NKF, YWCA Women of Achievement Award in science, and two outstanding clinical faculty awards from UW.
Dr. Tuttle earned her medical degree and completed her residency in internal medicine at Northwestern University. She was a fellow in metabolism and endocrinology at Washington University in St. Louis and then completed her nephrology fellowship at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
