Renal Pathology Fellowship

Overview

Medical Renal Pathology is a highly specialized field requiring rigorous training and adequate exposure to a broad spectrum of diagnoses.  At Stanford we offer a dedicated Renal Pathology Fellowship that will provide in-depth training in medical renal pathology with the goal of becoming a specialist in the field.

The Stanford Renal Pathology Service is enriched with high volume of native and transplant biopsies, several received in consultation from extended geographic region within the Bay Area. 

The renal pathology fellow will have opportunities for learning in a multidisciplinary setting from leaders in the field of Nephrology (adult & pediatric), Transplant surgery, Histocompatibility and Immunodiagnosis. 

Graduated responsibility opportunities include a Junior Attending rotation, presenting at various weekly, monthly and biannual biopsy conferences, teaching responsibilities, and service as a point person and consultant on renal pathology-related issues. 

Elective time can be used to pursue additional subspecialty training in other areas or to work on research projects.

Departmental resources and support are available for clinicopathologic and translational research projects.  

The Department of Pathology accepts one renal pathology fellow per year.

Stanford establishes PGY levels for new fellows based on the successful completion of all prerequisite training required for entry into your fellowship program. Stanford does not recognize additional training beyond the prerequisite training requirements when establishing the PGY level for entry into the program.

Neeraja Kambham, MD

Professor of Pathology
Director, Renal Pathology Service
Director, Electron Microscopy
Director, Renal Pathology Fellowship Program

Rotations

During their year-long fellowship, Renal Pathology Fellows will spend their time on the following rotations:

  • Renal Biopsy service fellowship rotation (consults, in house cases, second reviews, weekly clinical biopsy review coverage, overall service point person)
  • “Junior Attending” rotation (fellow reviews cases with rotating residents at “sign-out” and works up cases as if going to finalize independently, with hand-off to renal pathology faculty for report finalization and discussion)
  • Electron Microscopy Lab
  • Stanford Histocompatibility, Immunogenetics, and Disease Profiling Laboratory
  • Research
  • Electives
  • Vacation and educational/conference leave (4 weeks total)

Renal Pathology Faculty

Vivek Charu, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor of Pathology (Renal Pathology)

I am a physician and a biostatistician. My clinical expertise is in the diagnosis of non-neoplastic kidney and liver disease (including transplantation). My research interests center on the design of observational studies and clinical trials, the analysis of observational data, and causal inference.

More information about Dr. Charu

Current Renal Pathology Fellows [2024-25]

Lisa Friedman, MD

Medical School: Medical University of Virginia; Residency: University of Virginia

Alumni Renal Pathology Fellows