New scientist profile: Dr. Robert Myette brings a pediatric lens to kidney research at The Ottawa Hospital and CHEO

Dr. Robert Myette is tackling one of pediatric nephrology’s toughest problems: why nephrotic syndrome behaves so differently from child to child, and how to choose the right treatment from the start. 

Because the condition is still not fully understood, care can be challenging. “All children with nephrotic syndrome will receive some course of steroids,” explains Dr. Myette, referring to prednisone, the standard first‑line therapy. “Most children improve quickly on this treatment, but some don’t, and this can be very challenging, especially if they also experience side-effects of the medication.”

That’s the gap Dr. Myette aims to bridge as a new Clinician Scientist in The Ottawa Hospital’s Kidney Research Centre (KRC) which is part of the Inflammation and Chronic Disease Program at The Ottawa Hospital’s Research Institute (OHRI). While Dr. Myette is already appointed as a Scientist with the CHEO Research Institute, where he also serves as a pediatric nephrologist and Medical Director of Dialysis at CHEO, his new lab at OHRI creates a rare crossroads for collaborators to share tools and expertise, strengthening kidney research across both institutions. 

“The Kidney Research Centre is excited to welcome Dr. Myette to our team,” say Dr. Dylan Burger, Director of the Kidney Research Centre, Senior Scientist and Associate Program Director of OHRI’s Inflammation and Chronic Disease Program and Professor at the University of Ottawa. “Dr. Myette is the first laboratory scientist at the Kidney Research Centre with a focus on childhood kidney disease, and his background in mitochondrial function brings new and exciting models and experimental paradigms to our group.”

For Dr. Myette, the solution lies inside the kidneys themselves.

To explain his research, he jumps from the lab and the hospital to the kitchen. “Think of the kidney like straining pasta in a colander. When a kidney is healthy, the holes are just right, draining the water and leaving the pasta behind. In nephrotic syndrome, the holes stretch, allowing proteins and other essential minerals to spill through into the urine.” The result triggers swelling, fatigue, and other complications that can quickly become serious in children.

Dr. Myette’s team, which is also affiliated with the University of Ottawa, studies what widens those holes and how to coax them back to normal, ideally with personalized care that accounts for each child’s situation. And behind that work is a simple motivation: help families during a difficult diagnosis, speak plainly and make a hard road a little easier to walk — especially for those just taking their first steps.