Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Nephrology at the Duke University School of Medicine
Myles Wolf is Charles Johnson, MD, Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Nephrology at the Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. Wolf received his MD from the State University of New York–Downstate, completed Internal Medicine and Nephrology training at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and obtained a Master of Medical Sciences degree in Clinical and Physiological Investigation from Harvard Medical School. After serving on the Harvard faculty for 5 years, Dr. Wolf moved to the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, where he eventually served as Chief of the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Director of the Clinical Research Center, and Assistant Dean for Translational and Clinical Research. Subsequently, he spent 3 years at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine as founding Director of the Center for Translational Metabolism and Health and as Director of the Department of Medicine’s Physician-Scientist Training Program. Dr. Wolf moved to Duke in 2013. As Chief of Duke Nephrology, Dr. Wolf mentors, manages and leads >40 clinical and research faculty, >12 nephrology fellows, 5 advanced practice practitioners, an administrative and research staff of >30 professionals, and many rotating students and postdoctoral PhD trainees. Managing an annual operating budget of more than $15M, Dr. Wolf is responsible for developing the vision and executing the operational strategy of Duke Nephrology across its clinical, research and educational missions.
The focus of Dr. Wolf’s clinical trials, patient-oriented, epidemiological, and laboratory research is disordered mineral metabolism across the spectrum of kidney disease from early stages to end-stage renal disease and following kidney transplantation. His primary contributions have been to characterize the central role of fibroblast growth factor 23 in phosphate and calcium homeostasis in health and in disease, and the deleterious effects of excess fibroblast growth factor 23 that increase risks of cardiovascular disease and death. Since 2002, Dr. Wolf’s research has been supported by the American Heart Association, National Kidney Foundation, American Society of Nephrology, and National Institutes of Health. As Principal Investigator, he has been the recipient of more than $25 million of extramural grant support throughout his career. Having served on Steering Committees and as Principal Investigator of multiple industry- and federally-sponsored clinical trials, Dr. Wolf is currently PI of “HiLo,” which is a randomized multicenter pragmatic clinical outcomes trial of phosphate management in patients with end-stage renal disease. Dr. Wolf has published his research in N Engl J Med, JAMA, J Clin Invest, Circulation, Cell Metabol, J Am Soc Nephrol, and Kidney Int, among others.
Dr. Wolf has been primary research mentor for students, residents, fellows, and faculty, many of whom are now independent investigators and national leaders in academic nephrology. He has served on editorial boards for J Am Soc Nephrol, Clin J Am Soc Nephrol, Semin Nephrol, and Nat Rev Nephrol, as an ad hoc reviewer for several other journals, and as Editor of the Mineral Metabolism section of Curr Opin Nephrol Hypertens. Dr. Wolf has delivered numerous invited lectures on his research domestically and internationally, and has received several teaching, mentoring and research awards. In recognition of his scientific contributions, Dr. Wolf was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation in 2010 and the Association of American Physicians in 2017. He received the 2014 Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Nephrology, and was elected to the Council of the International Society of Nephrology in 2017 and as Chair of its North American and Caribbean Regional Board in 2019. In 2020, Dr. Wolf was appointed to the Board of Directors of Akebia Therapeutics, Inc.