Throughout her career as a young physician, the late Priya Nagar, M.D., had a special understanding of her patients’ challenges because of her own experiences with pain, serious illness, and healing. Priya was diagnosed at age 9 with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and kidney failure in her native India and underwent a kidney transplant when she was 14, with her mother as her living donor. The transplant allowed Priya to pursue her dreams of becoming a doctor after her family’s move to the United States. She enjoyed a rewarding career as a hospitalist at Baptist Medical Center in Montgomery, where she completed her residency in family medicine. “Priya had such tremendous doctors her whole life and was inspired by their work,” said her younger sister, Anusuiya Nagar, M.D.
In 2017, at the age of 36, Priya lost her battle with a rare form of lymphoma, a complication of long-term immunotherapy for her CKD and previous kidney transplant. “Priya’s treatment involved chemotherapy, losing her hair, and other challenges,” recalled Vineeta Kumar, M.D., a professor in the Heersink School of Medicine and holder of the Robert C. and Cutessa D. Bourge Endowed Professorship in Transplant Nephrology, who was part of Priya’s medical team at UAB. “As a patient, she channeled her energy into being a positive presence for everyone around her.”
After Priya’s untimely passing, her parents, Rajinder and Kamaljeet Nagar, and sister, Anusuiya, wanted to honor Priya’s incredible life of gratitude and legacy of caring for others. “In the aftermath of her loss, we had energy that was uncomfortable and unwelcome,” explained Anusuiya, who serves as program director for the Adult Psychiatry Residency Program at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. “We had a painful void that we could either leave empty or fill with something meaningful.” The family established the Priya Nagar, M.D., Foundation in 2018 to support promising research to understand the underlying causes of CKD and reduce its prevalence.
Because Priya received excellent care from providers in the UAB Division of Nephrology, the family chose UAB as the primary recipient of the foundation’s funds. “Priya had a team of nephrologists at UAB, and they were a second family to her and to us,” Rajinder Nagar said, adding that nephrologist Anupam Agarwal, M.D., senior vice president for Medicine and dean of the Heersink School of Medicine, Kelly Hyndman, Ph.D., associate professor in the UAB Division of Nephrology, and Kumar were instrumental in introducing them to UAB’s innovative kidney disease research. “The human story behind the Nagar family’s effort was powerful and humbling,” Kumar recalled.
The family’s fundraising efforts for the foundation were spearheaded by Kamaljeet Nagar, affectionately known as Bubby, who began selling her hand-knitted, woolen dog sweaters on the foundation’s website. An annual 3K walk in Naperville, Illinois, where the family lived for many years, also generates funds for the foundation. One of the most popular fundraising events is an annual neighborhood dinner that Kamaljeet hosts in Greenville, South Carolina, where the couple retired in 2021.
“She prepares and serves delicious, homemade Indian food on white tablecloths to our guests,” Anusuiya describes. “The event began with 22 people, and this October, our fourth year, we anticipate more than 100 people.”
Through the Nagar family’s extraordinary efforts, the foundation has made significant annual gifts to the UAB Division of Nephrology to advance novel, promising research that could help to prevent CKD and lead to more effective treatments. Hyndman shared that the Dr. Priya Nagar Pilot Award she received from the foundation was pivotal in achieving early research results that led to an R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health. “Pilot awards allow investigators to generate preliminary, published data that can help to secure a larger grant, such as an R01, to continue their research,” she explained. Hyndman studies how proteins called histone deacetylases (HDACs), which regulate gene function in cells, could be manipulated to treat acute kidney injury. “The pilot award allowed me to use cutting-edge technology to produce data from which I’m still generating new hypotheses,” she said.
The foundation has also provided funds through the Priya Nagar, M.D., Innovation Award to two UAB investigators who have each developed novel medical devices with potential to treat CKD-related conditions. “The incredible generosity of Dr. Nagar’s family has been transformational in helping to fund cutting-edge research that will result in the development of new therapies for kidney disease,” said Orlando Gutierrez, M.D., director of the UAB Division of Nephrology and holder of the Marie S. Ingalls Endowed Chair in Nephrology Leadership. “We are humbled to honor Dr. Nagar’s memory in this way, establishing a permanent legacy for her that will help thousands of individuals with kidney disease and related ailments well into the future.”
Anusuiya said the foundation’s mission reflects the gratitude that defines Priya’s legacy. “Despite her serious health challenges, Priya remained grateful for the gift of time the kidney transplant gave her, especially the opportunity to become a doctor and care for patients,” she said. Rajinder Nagar recalled of Priya, “I often found her late in the evening talking to the family of a patient. This is the kind of dedicated physician she was.” Kumar says that Priya’s essence was to do all she could to make others’ lives better, adding, “Through research funded by the foundation established in her name, Priya’s legacy of giving and gratitude continues, with the potential to transform countless lives.”
-Yolanda Heiberger