- Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics (Pediatric Nephrology), Yale School of Medicine, Yale University
Dr. Christine Bakhoum is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Section of Pediatric Nephrology at Yale School of Medicine, a clinical investigator in the Yale Clinical and Translational Research Accelerator (CTRA), and a member of the Colton Center for Autoimmunity at Yale.
Dr. Bakhoum’s research program centers on kidney disease, with a particular focus on lupus nephritis. Her work aims to improve how lupus nephritis is detected, classified, and monitored, with the long-term goal of advancing precision medicine for patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). A central thread of her research integrates clinical, epidemiologic, and molecular approaches to identify minimally invasive biomarkers of disease activity and kidney injury.
Her recent work has demonstrated that blood-based epigenetic signatures — specifically DNA methylation patterns — correlate with histopathologic features in lupus nephritis, supporting their potential as biomarkers for disease subtyping and longitudinal monitoring without the need for repeat kidney biopsy. Through collaborative work spanning nephrology, immunology, epidemiology, and bioinformatics, Dr. Bakhoum seeks to translate molecular discoveries into clinically actionable tools that will benefit both children and adults living with autoimmune kidney disease.
