Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Appoints New Chief of Nephrology

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) has appointed Benjamin Laskin, MD as Chief of the Division of Nephrology in the Department of Pediatrics.

Dr. Laskin, who has served the last 11 years as an attending physician in the Division of Nephrology at CHOP, will continue working alongside a multidisciplinary team that provides high-quality medical care for children with kidney disease or hypertension.

"I am delighted to announce the well-earned appointment of Dr. Benjamin Laskin to Chief of our Division of Nephrology,” said Joseph St. Geme, MD, Physician-in-Chief and Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics. “Dr. Laskin is a highly accomplished physician, educator, and scholar with an impressive background in nephrology. I look forward to watching the division grow to an even higher level of excellence under Dr. Laskin’s leadership. Additionally, we thank Dr. Madhura Pradhan for her time as interim Chief of Nephrology and are eager to see her continue her important roles in the Division and across CHOP.”

Dr. Laskin’s research interests include infections and kidney disease in immunosuppressed children, particularly those receiving a bone marrow or solid organ transplant. His research aims to prevent, treat, or slow the progression of kidney disease in children receiving a hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT). He is the principal investigator on a National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) research study to test the association between viral infection and kidney and bladder disease in children receiving an allogeneic HCT. Dr. Laskin has conducted several clinical research projects on disease in immunosuppressed children, resulting in numerous publications on the study of infections after kidney transplant and HCT and the study of thrombotic microangiopathy after HCT.

Dr. Laskin has served as the medical director for quality improvement and is currently the operations director for the Transplant Center at CHOP. He oversees several projects, including improving vaccination rates and screening efforts for Epstein-Barr virus infection in children who have received a solid organ transplant.

In addition to his roles at CHOP, Dr. Laskin is also an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned his undergraduate degree at Duke University and attended the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He completed both his pediatrics residency and pediatric nephrology fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. After fellowship, he joined the faculty at CHOP. He has been the recipient of numerous research awards, including a New Investigator Award from the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. He has published over 70 manuscripts and several book chapters and serves as a mentor to numerous fellows and junior faculty members.