Balboa Nephrology is one of the largest kidney-care medical groups in California, founded in San Diego in 1973 and grown from two physicians to roughly 60-plus board-certified nephrologists across San Diego, Orange County and Imperial Valley. It manages more than 28,000 kidney patients and 6,000 dialysis and transplant patients, runs its own clinical-research arm (Balboa Research, formerly the California Institute of Renal Research), a Vascular Access Center, and the Balboa Institute of Transplantation, and is a national leader in value-based kidney care through a joint venture with Evergreen Nephrology.
Steve Steinberg is a San Diego nephrologist who helped grow Balboa Nephrology Medical Group from a tiny two-physician practice into the largest nephrology group in California, now spanning roughly 60 board-certified nephrologists, dozens of clinical offices and scores of dialysis clinics. As CEO-Medical Director he has steered Balboa toward value-based kidney care, where the group posts some of the strongest national outcomes in CMS and CMMI programs, while championing the idea that kidney patients should never feel alone in their care.
Walden Biosciences is a Cambridge, Massachusetts clinical-stage biotech building first-in-class, disease-modifying medicines that target the kidney directly instead of just delaying the slide toward dialysis. Founded in 2020 on the podocyte and suPAR research of renal scientist Jochen Reiser and colleagues, Walden pairs an antibody program (WAL0921, against soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor) with a small-molecule program (WAL0623, a dynamin stabilizer) to protect and restore the kidney's filtration cells. Backed by ARCH Venture Partners, UCB Ventures, Mass General Brigham Ventures and ATEM Capital, the company is advancing WAL0921 through a Phase 2 basket study across common and rare glomerular kidney diseases.