Dr. Coca’s research accomplishments are diverse and far-reaching: he has focused research efforts on short- and long-term outcomes of acute kidney injury, and assessing performance of biomarkers for rapid diagnosis and risk stratification in AKI. His research has advanced understanding of the clinical utility of prognostic, predictive, and efficacy biomarkers for CKD/diabetic kidney disease in several large cohort studies, including the ACCORD, VA NEPHRON-D, CANVAS, and DAPA-CKD clinical trials, as well as the Mount Sinai BioMe Biobank and the UPenn Medicine Biobank. He has been an active investigator in several large NIH consortia, including the TRIBE-AKI, ASSESS-AKI, CKD Biocon, and Kidney Precision Medicine Project (KPMP). Over the past 3 years, he has led collaborations to advance use of machine-learning techniques and multidimensional data acquisition to create risk-stratification tools for patients at risk or with prevalent chronic kidney disease, and studied the impact of exercise on longitudinal changes in the kidney. His work has led to the FDA approval and commercial implementation of the bioprognostic test, KidneyIntelX, a validated risk score for progression of CKD in adults with type 2 diabetes.
Since 2005, Dr. Coca has published numerous peer-reviewed research articles, reviews, and editorials, and has given numerous invited talks at national and international conferences and academic medical centers. He has engaged in multiple collaborative efforts in translational and clinical research, and served as a research mentor for many fellows, residents, medical students, and junior faculty members. He also serves on the editorial boards for the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephology, and Kidney International, and as an Associate Editor for Kidney360, and is a frequent reviewer on NIH study sections.