Dr Huen is a nephrologist, physician scientist, and an assistant professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX. Dr. Huen is originally from Chicago, IL. She received her initial medical training at Northwestern University. She completed her Internal Medicine residency training at New York University Medical Center. Intrigued by the pathophysiology of acute kidney injury and frustrated by the lack of any viable therapeutic options, she pursued a research nephrology fellowship and a Ph.D. degree in Investigative Medicine at Yale University in the laboratory of Dr. Lloyd Cantley studying the role of macrophages in ischemic kidney injury. She was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Ruslan Medzhitov at Yale where she studied the mechanisms of tissue tolerance and changes in metabolism in systemic inflammation.
Dr. Huen has been investigating how the evolutionarily conserved response of anorexia to acute infection could be protective in bacterial sepsis, a severe inflammatory response to an infection. After experiencing how a low carbohydrate diet could achieve normal blood glucose (no more blood glucose rollercoasters) in her T1D husband, she is now investigating dietary influences on kidney metabolism using principles from evolutionary biology and biochemistry. She recently rescued 2 cats from a shelter and dry high carb kibble, and they are now enjoying a species appropriate diet, 100% raw carnivore.
