He received his PhD from MD Anderson Cancer Center and Postdoctoral training from Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Baylor College of Medicine. His research focuses on epigenetic mechanism of Na+ and water homeostasis, with a special emphasis on histone H3 K79 methyltransferase Dot1l and the epithelial Na+ channel. He created Af17 knockout and Dot1l conditional knockout mice. Recently, he began to study biomarkers and stem cells in kidney injury and repair. He has published more than 40 peer-reviewed papers and received funding from NIH, AHA and ASN.