Speakers

Dr Ángel Alonso

Since 1988, Dr Ángel Alonso is in charge of the Peritoneal and Haemodialysis unit at the Paediatric Nephrology and Renal Transplant Department at La Paz Hospital. Madrid. He has been a member of Spanish Society of Paediatric Nephrology since 1989 and member of the Council of the Spanish Society of Paediatric Nephrology from 1998 to 2002. Dr Alonso specialises in Kidney transplant, Haemodialysis and Peritoneal Dialysis programs and has been the Head of Dialysis Peritoneal and Haemodialysis programs of the Paediatric Nephrology Department at La Paz hospital since 1988. He was also the Chief of the training program for Paediatric Residents from 1990 to 1996 as well as the National coordinator of the Spanish Registry of Insufficiency Renal Chronic (REPIR) from 2001 to the present date. He was a critical reviewer of works for the magazine “Spanish Annals of Pediatría” between 1999 - 2002.

In 2000, Dr Alonso won the Iberian prize to the best Portuguese/Hispanic communication at the Iberian Meeting of Paediatric Nephrology with his titled work: “The Optimization of the volume of intraperitoneal infusion (VIP) by means of the measurement of the hydrostatic pressure improves the explanation of small molecules in children with automatic peritoneal dialysis”.

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Dr Carsten Bergmann

Dr Carsten Bergmann is a consultant at the Department of Human Genetics, RWTH Aachen University Hospital. He holds a board certification (Facharzt) for human genetics and currently heads a team of 15 people. His research is focused on cystic kidney diseases and other ciliopathies like Bardet-Biedl, Joubert, and Meckel-Gruber syndrome. He established and curates the official database for autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPKD). Another main research interest is the clinical and molecular characterization of neuromuscular disorders, in particular hereditary motor sensory CMT neuropathies. This interest arose in 1996 when he started his M.D. thesis under the supervision of Prof. J. Michael Schröder at the Department of Neuropathology. His interest in polycystic kidney disease started in 2000 when he began his training in human genetics under the supervision of Prof. Klaus Zerres. In 2006, he completed his Ph.D. thesis (Habilitation) on the clinical and molecular characterization of autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPKD). Over the past few years, he has received a number of honours, such as a scholarship from the German Kidney Foundation, the G.I.F. Young Scientist award, the Else-Kröner-Fresenius award, and the Friedrich-Wilhelm award. He is member of several advisory and editorial boards and author and co-author of several book chapters and more than 50 publications in peer-reviewed international journals, such as Nature Genetics, Lancet, and the New England Journal of Medicine. Finally, he has been serving as a reviewer for a wide range of scientific journals, such as Nature Reviews Genetics, American Journal of Human Genetics, New England Journal of Medicine, and Human Molecular Genetics.

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Professor Mario Bianchetti

Doctor Mario G. Bianchetti, who trained in Switzerland, at the Necker Hospital in France and at the De Marchi Hospital in Italy, is currently chairman of the Department of Paediatrics in Mendrisio and Bellinzona (Switzerland) and associate professor of Nephrology at the University Children's Hospital in Berne (Switzerland).

He is author of more than 200 articles published in peer-reviewed journals and member of the editorial board of various scientific journals. His research focuses on renal tubular disorders, systemic hypertension and vasculitidesdialysis”.

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Dr Daniel G. Bichet

Dr Daniel G. Bichet took his medical training in France (M.D. University of Besançon) then at the University of Montreal, McGill and the University of Colorado Medical Centre where he was a fellow with Dr Robert W. Schrier. He has been investigating the molecular and cellular basis of hereditary polyuric states since the early 90’s and, together with Michel Bouvier at the University of Montreal, proposed a pharmacological chaperone treatment for misfolded mutations responsible for X-linked Nephrogenic Diabetes Insipidus. More recently, with Alan Peterson (McGill), he has generated a unique Avpr2 GFP-LacZ reporter mouse line with an expression pattern reflecting the expression program of the endogenous Avpr2 gene. Together these themes are aimed to provide early identification and new treatments for hereditary polyuric states.

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Dr Francois Bouissou

François Bouissou, MD, is a paediatric nephrologist(s) at the Children University Hospital in Toulouse, France. During the 1970’s, he initiated paediatric renal replacement therapy and aphaeresis as well as renal transplantation for children from the all south west of France.

Head of the paediatric nephrology unit until 2006, he is currently coordinator of the rare kidney disease centre of south west of France. He worked on epidemiology and immuno-genetics in idiopathic nephrotic syndrome, and first reported the association of the disease with HLA class II antigens. He collaborates to the French Ritux study group in idiopathic nephrotic syndrome.



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Professor Dominique Chauveau

Dominique Chauveau is Professor of Nephrology at the University of Toulouse (France), and consultant nephrologist at the Nephrology and Clinical Immunology Department, University Hospital Rangueil in Toulouse. His main field of interest is in Inherited Renal Diseases. He is coordinator of one Referral Center for Renal Orphan Diseases in France. He has served as Secretary of the Société de Néphrologie, and was recently elected as a Council member for ERA/EDTA.



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Dr Marie Claire Gubler

After a training in pediatrics and pathology Dr Marie Claire Gubler joined Renée Habib in the INSERM where she is currently Director of Research emeritus. Her carrier has been devoted to Pediatric Nephrology, then to Renal Pathology, in close association with the Necker clinical department of Pediatric Nephrology. Most of her works are based on the morphological analysis of renal changes occurring in various types of acquired or hereditary renal diseases, observed in children or fetuses, using different technical approaches: standard light and electron microscopy, light and electron immunohistology, in situ hybridization.
In collaboration with nephrologists, and with geneticists, she participated in the identification of new syndromes, in the establishment of phenotype-genotype correlations in hereditary diseases, and in the phenotypic characterization of genetically modified animal models of hereditary renal diseases.



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Felix Claverie-Martin

Felix Claverie-Martin is Director of Research at the Nuestra Señora de Candelaria University Hospital, Santa Cruz de Tenerife. He obtained a BSc in 1979 from the University of La Laguna and a PhD in 1984 from University College Dublin. He performed postdoctoral training on regulation of gene expression, first at the Department of Genetics, University of Georgia, and then at the Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Claverie-Martín was a Senior Research Associate at DNAX Research Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology (now Schering-Plough Biopharma), Palo Alto, California, and a Research Fellow at the Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine. He returned to Spain at the end of 1996, establishing a research laboratory at the Nuestra Señora de Candelaria University Hospital. Since then, his research interests focus on understanding the genetic and molecular basis of renal hereditary diseases, particularly tubulopathies that present hypercalciuria, nephrocalcinosis and renal failure as common features. He is also involved in determining the functional consequences of apparent missense mutations, associated with renal diseases, in pre-mRNA splicing.

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Alberto Edefonti

Alberto Edefonti is Director of the Paediatric Nephrology and Dialysis Unit at Clinica Paediatrica De Marchi, Fondazione IRCCS Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Mangiagalli e Regina Elena, Milano, Italy. After specializing in Paediatrics and in Nephrology, he has been in charge of the Dialysis Unit of the Clinica Paediatrica De Marchi since its foundation, in 1978. His main interests currently are focused on Clinical Nephrology and Renal Replacement Therapy. He was recently involved in several studies on the nutritional assessment and management of children with Chronic Kidney Disease, pharmacogenomics of renal transplantation, atypical HUS and hypertension. He has actively participated since 1998 in the European Paediatric Dialysis Working Group, which has published several recommendations and guidelines for children on dialysis. He is an author of the Clinical Dialysis 4th Edition by Nissenson and Fine and a Section Editor of Paediatric Nephrology, the Journal of the International Society for Paediatric Nephrology. Since 2001 he carried out a project of Cooperation with Nicaragua, aimed at developing a Paediatric Nephrology Unit in Managua and a Paediatric nephrology network in the country. He has a major role in both undergraduate and postgraduate medical education in Paediatrics and in Nephrology at the University of Milan Medical School and has been Co-director of an annual advanced course on neonatal and Paediatric nephrology since 1996. After serving as a Councillor of the European Society for Paediatric Nephrology in the nineties, he is now Councillor of the International Society of Paediatric Nephrology.

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Brunella Franco

Brunella Franco was born in Naples, Italy, on March 7, 1962. After her graduation in Medicine in 1987 at the University of Naples, Italy, she took residency training in Paediatrics at the same University. She has spent several years working in the field of genetic diseases in the USA at the Institute for Molecular Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, first as Research Associate, and then as Research Assistant Professor. In 1994 she joined the Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine (TIGEM), where she is still working both as Group Leader and as Coordinator. At present she is also Associate Professor in Medical Genetics at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Naples “Federico II” and faculty of the European School of Molecular Medicine. Brunella Franco’s main research interests are: identification and characterization of human disease genes, elucidation of pathogenetic mechanisms of inherited diseases and use of functional genomic approaches to study disease processes. She has published approximately 70 papers in prestigious, peer reviewed international scientific journals. She has served as a reviewer for several international scientific journals. She received the Award for the best publication in basic research in Paediatrics from the Italian Society of Paediatrics in 2006 (Ferrante MI et al., Nature Genetics, 38, 112-117, 2006).

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Fabrizio Ginevri

Fabrizio Ginevri has over thirty years of experience in the field of nephrology and has been a contract Professor at the University of Genova, School of Nephrology since 1997 where he also acts as contract Professor at the School of Paediatrics. He received his nephrology and paediatric training at the University of Genova, Italy and conducted additional training specialising in kidney transplantation at the European College of Transplantation in Milan, Italy and Leuven, Belgium. He has sat on the scientific board of the European Society of Organ Transplantation (ESOT), has acted as the scientific coordinator of the Paediatric Northern Italy Transplant Program (NITp) and has also served on the Editorial Board of Transplantation. His clinical interests and fields of study include clinical nephrology and hypertension in the Paediatric setting, the nephrotic syndrome in paediatric patients, experimental nephrology (including pathogenic mechanisms of nephrotic syndrome in the animal model, tubular damage in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus), paediatric kidney transplantation, immunosuppression and viral complications of transplantation. Dr Ginevri is co-author of more than 100 scientific publications on peer reviewed journals.

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Ryszard Grenda

Professor Grenda is currently Head of Department of Nephrology, Kidney Transplantation & Hypertension at the Children’s Memorial Health Institute Warsaw, Poland (the largest tertiary reference Paediatric Hospital in Poland).
Professor Grenda is in charge of renal replacement therapy, including dialysis and renal transplantation in children. He has participated in 3 multicenter European transplantation trials on post-transplant immunosuppression. The center also participated also in an EU ESCAPE Trial, focused on chronic renal disease in children and he was personally involved in investigating urine biomarkers turnover in this study.
He also in charge of extended program of extracorporeal therapy, including CRRT, plasmapheresis, LDL-apheresis and MARS- Molecular Adsorbent Recirculating System .
Since the late 1990’s Professor Grenda has had a major role in post-graduate medical education in nephrology. He is in charge of the final examination and graduation of this subspecialty for Paediatricians in Poland. He runs medical teaching courses on nephrology, dialysis and clinical transplantation in annual basis. He is co-author of several chapters in numerous Polish textbooks of nephrology and transplantation.
He is also chairman of the Ethical Committee on the Polish National Board of Transplantation (Ministry of Health, Poland)..

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Dr Friedhelm Hildebrandt

Dr Friedhelm Hildebrandt is an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a Professor of Paediatrics and of Human Genetics at the University of Michigan, where he is an attending in Paediatric nephrology. Dr Hildebrandt’s laboratory has identified, by positional cloning, and functionally characterized over 10 novel genes mutated in hereditary kidney diseases, thereby advancing the understanding of disease mechanisms. This includes cystic kidney diseases, nephrotic syndrome, and urinary tract malformations. The identification of genes mutated in nephronophthisis with retinitis pigmentosa contributed to a new unifying pathogenic concept of cystic kidney diseases that is based on the function of primary cilia. Dr Hildebrandt’s laboratory provides molecular genetic diagnostics on an experimental basis for children with hereditary kidney disease worldwide (www.renalgenes.org).


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Dr William van’t Hoff

William van’t Hoff is a Consultant Paediatric Nephrologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Trust. He obtained his BSc (Hons) in Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics from the University of London in 1980 and qualified at Guy’s Hospital in 1983. After training posts in Birmingham and Oxford, he focused on metabolic diseases and nephrology. His MD thesis was awarded in 1994 for studies on the diagnosis and treatment of Cystinosis. His research interest has continued on renal metabolic, tubular and stone disorders, principally the renal Fanconi syndrome. He is also currently Director of the London Medicines for Children Local Research Network and Head of the Somers Clinical Research Facility at Great Ormond Street Hospital. He chairs the Joint Standing Medicines Committee at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

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Tobias Huber

Tobias B. Huber is Assistant Professor of Medicine and Nephrology at the University of Freiburg. Huber received his MD and clinical training at the Universities of Vienna/Austria, Tampa/ USA and Freiburg/Germany. After his postdoctoral fellowships at the Department of Nephrology, University of Freiburg and at the Department of Pathology and Immunology at the Washington University of St. Louis/ USA, Huber started his own laboratory in Freiburg in 2006. His research focus is on the understanding of molecular mechanisms of glomerular physiology, development and disease. Huber’s studies provided the first evidence of how the slit diaphragm serves as a signalling platform for podocyte functions and promoted the concept that slit diaphragm proteins participate in signal transduction events to regulate glomerular physiology and unexpected insights in the development of the complex three dimensional filtration barrier in vivo and function. The latest research of Huber’s team in Freiburg includes the study of polarity signalling networks in podocytes which allows novel and unexpected insights in the development of the complex three dimensional filtration barrier in vivo.

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Professor Takashi Igarashi

Dr Igarashi graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo in 1978. After completing his training in general Paediatrics, he received Paediatric Nephrology training at Kiyose Metropolitan Children's Hospital and at Paediatrics, The University of Tokyo. He studied Immunology and Molecular Biology at the Division of Immunology, Boston Children's Hospital. He received his Ph.D. degree at The University of Tokyo in 1989. He identified that Japanese idiopathic low molecular weight proteinuria is identical to British Dent disease. He then identified that the mutations in Na+-HCO3- cotransporter gene (SLC4A4) cause isolated proximal renal tubular acidosis with ocular abnormalities. He received five prizes as the first author: two from The Japanese Society of Paediatrics, two from The Japanese Society of Paediatric Nephrology and one from Tokyo Medical Association. He has been a Chairman and Professor of Paediatrics, The University of Tokyo since 2000. He also has been a member of Science Council of Japan since 2005, a councilor of International Paediatric Nephrology Association since 2007, and the president of Japanese Society of Paediatric Nephrology since 2007. He has published 109 papers in scientific journals. He is currently involved in writing Paediatric Nephrology, 6th edition, Lippincott Willimas & Wilkins.

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Khalid Ismaili

Khalid Ismaili is Associated Chief of the Department of Pediatric Nephrology at the Children’s Hospital of Brussels. He has been a consultant Pediatric Nephrologist at Erasme Hospital in Brussels since 1999 and became a member of the Renal Transplantation Team since 2006. His interest in Pediatric Nephrology, especially in perinatal issues, started many years ago during his paediatric training. He was involved in the antenatal screening for renal abnormalities study looking at outcomes of neonates born with CAKUTs and was the principal investigator for the Belgian Study. He is an author of a chapter in the Comprehensive Paediatric Nephrology Textbook and a reviewer in many Paediatric, Urologic and Nephrologic journals. He is currently involved in creating cooperative projects in Vietnam and Rwanda with healthcare local assistants to detect and treat children with renal diseases. He also has a role in postgraduate medical education and is involved in new clinical studies and clinical efficacy and safety of antihypertensive drugs. He runs multidisciplinary renal courses including a trimestrial course on perinatal medicine in Brussels.

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Hannu Jalanko

Hannu Jalank received his MD degree in 1978 and finished his PhD thesis in 1979 at the University of Helsinki. After graduation he did research on immunology both in Finland and USA, and received a docentship in immunology in 1984 at the University of Helsinki. After some years in basic science, he specialized in Paediatrics and Paediatric Nephrology, and since 2001 he has been the head of the Department of Paediatric Nephrology and Transplantation, Hospital for Children and Adolescents, University of Helsinki. Exceptionally, his unit takes care of all Paediatric transplantations (kidney, liver, heart, lungs) in Finland. His scientific work has focused on proteinuric kidney diseases and management of transplant children and adolescents. He has published 148 original articles and 18 international reviews and book chapters, including the chapter on Congenital Nephrotic Syndrome in the Texbook of Paediatric Nephrology.

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Dr Colin Johnson

My post-doctoral training was with Prof. Bryan M. Turner, University of Birmingham. My research focused on the functions of enzymes that modify histone proteins and remodel chromatin, and to clarify the epigenetic links between transcription, chromatin structure and apoptosis. Staying in Birmingham, but moving fields to human molecular genetics, I began a Lectureship in May 2001 with Prof. Eamonn R. Maher. My group used the strategy of autozygosity mapping to identify novel recessive disease genes, using DNA collected from large cohorts of consanguineous Pakistani, Northern Indian, Turkish and Italian families. We mapped genetic loci and contributed to the identification of genes for Meckel-Gruber syndrome, asphyxiating thoracic dystrophy, and other related conditions that are now known to be ciliopathies. In November 2006 I took up a Readership at Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Leeds Medical School. My groups’ interests include the molecular genetics of ciliopathies, functional characterization of the MKS proteins, and the cell biology of ciliopathies. I also contribute to undergraduate medical education at Leeds, and run the medical genetics module for the MBChB degree.

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Nicholas Katsanis

Dr. Katsanis obtained his first degree in Genetics from UCL in London in 1993 and his doctorate from Imperial College, University of London in 1997, where he worked with Dr. Elizabeth Fisher on the genetics of Down syndrome. He then joined the laboratory of Dr. James Lupski at the Dept. of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, where he initiated his studies on the genetic and molecular basis of Bardet-Biedl syndrome. In 2002, he relocated to the Institute of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, where he is currently an Associate Professor with appointments at the Departments of Ophthalmology, Molecular Bilogy and Genetics. His research interests continue to focus on the genetic basis of Bardet-Biedl sydnrome, where is laboratory is engaged in the identification of causative genes. In parallel, the Katsanis lab pursues questions centered on the signaling roles of vertebrate cilia, the translation of signaling pathway defects on the causality of ciliary disorders, and the dissection of second-site modification phenomena as a consequece of genetic load in a functional system.

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 Prof Markus Kemper

Markus J. Kemper is consultant in Paediatric Nephrology and future Head of department at the University Children’s’ Hospital Hamburg Germany. He received his Paediatric Nephrology training at Guy´s Hospital London and the University Children’s’ Hospitals in Hamburg, Germany and Zürich, Switzerland. He completed his habilitation thesis in 2002 and became Professor of Paediatrics in 2007. His clinical and scientific interests include transplantation medicine, the primary hyperoxalurias and the childhood nephrotic syndrome, covering especially the immunology, treatment and outcome of steroid sensitive nephrotic syndrome. He has authored several articles relating to T- and B-cell immunity of the idiopathic nephrotic syndrome as well as studies on different treatment options (levamisole, cylophosphamide, cyclosporine and rituximab). Lastly, he has also published on the long-term follow-up and health related quality of life in this disorder. He is involved in under - and postgraduate medical education and is in charge of the quality management system at the University Children’s Hospital Hamburg.

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Professor Thomas Neuhaus

Since 2008, Professor Thomas Neuhaus has been chairman of the Department of Paediatrics of the Children's Hospital Lucerne, Switzerland. He has been a consultant Paediatric Nephrologist and Paediatrician at the University Children's Hospital Zurich, Switzerland, for many years and has been the head of both the Nephrology Unit and the Paediatric Outpatient Unit from 2000 - 2008. In 2005, he became a Professor of Paediatrics and Paediatric Nephrology at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. His former Paediatric and Nephrology training took place at the University Children's Hospital Zurich, Switzerland, and the Institute of Child Health and the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children, London, UK. His main research interests encompass nephrotic syndrome, haemolytic-uraemic syndrome, long-term outcome of children with chronic renal failure, genetics and urinary tract infections. He has a major role in both undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. From 2005 to 2008 he was council member for ESPN.



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Professor Albert Ong

Dr Albert CM Ong is a Professor of Renal Medicine and Head of the Academic Unit of Nephrology at the University of Sheffield. He is Head of the Kidney Genetics Group at the Henry Wellcome Laboratories for Medical Research in the School of Medicine and Hon Consultant Nephrologist at the Sheffield Kidney Institute. He qualified in medicine from the University of Oxford and underwent postgraduate training in medicine and nephrology at University College London and Oxford University. Dr Ong worked as a National Kidney Research Fund Senior Research Fellow in the laboratory of Professor Peter Harris at the Institute of Molecular Medicine, Oxford. He currently holds a five year Research Leave Award from the Wellcome Trust to fund his research programme on the cellular functions of the ADPKD proteins, polycystin-1 and polycystin-2. The major focus of his research is to develop new treatments for ADPKD patients by studying how the functions of the polycystin proteins are regulated and investigating the factors that alter clinical disease progression in ADPKD.

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Ozan Ozkaya

Dr Ozan Ozkaya is chief of Division of Paediatric Nephrology at Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun,Turkey. Dr Ozkaya completed her residency and her Paediatric Nephrology fellowship at Gazi University. After her fellowship, she joined Ondokuz Mayıs University in 2002. She has been the director of Division of Paediatric Nephrology since 2002 and became Associate Professor of Paediatrics in 2004. Dr Ozkaya provides care for children with kidney problems of any type, including peritoneal dialysis and kidney transplant recipients. She is one of the principal investigators of the Turkish Renal Stone Study group. Her areas of interests are peritoneal dialysis and renal stone diseases.



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Dr Marco Pontoglio

Dr Pontoglio is a research director (DR2/CNRS) currently studying the mechanisms responsible for renal cyst formation. His main area of interests includes the control of gene expression, cell differentiation and morphogenesis. In particular he is studying the mechanism of cyst formation in mouse models for the inactivation of MODY5/HNF1beta, a transcription factor expressed in renal tubular epithelia. Dr Pontoglio took his degree in the Department of Genetics, Milan University and subsequently moved as a postdoctoral fellow to the Pasteur Institute, Paris in the department of Developmental Biology in the laboratory directed by Prof Moshe Yaniv. He became “CNRS researcher” in 1997 and “CNRS Director” in 2001. Since 1997 Dr Pontoglio is leading a group that is going to move soon as an independent unit to “Institut Cochin” (INSERM/CNRS) in Paris.


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Dr Rosa Vargas- Poussou

Dr Rosa Vargas- Poussou is a consultant at the Genetics Department of the European Hospital Georges Pompidou in Paris, directed by Pr Xavier Jeunemaitre. She first trained in Paediatric Nephrology in Antioquia University Hospital in Colombia and at the Necker Hospital in France. After a Master’s degree in renal physiology, and a Ph.D at Prof. Corinne Antignac’s laboratory, she focused her interest on hereditary renal tubular diseases.

Dr Vargas-Poussou has an internationally recognized experience and knowledge in this area. She is in charge of molecular diagnosis of the following diseases: Dent disease, Hypophosphatemia with Nephrolithiasis/Osteoporosis, Hypophosphatemic rickets with hypercalciuria, Bartter syndrome, Familial hypomagnesemia with hypercalciuria and nephrocalcinosis, Gitelman syndrome, Distal Renal Tubular Acidosis, Nephrogenic Diabetes Insipidus and diseases associated with molecular abnormalities in Calcium Sensing Receptor. She coordinates the French tubulopathies network in collaboration with the centre for rare kidney disease, MARHEA. She is also a partner of the Eunefron consortium (European Network for the Study of Orphan Nephropathies).

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Dr Helle Praetorious

Helle Praetorius is a lecturer at Institute of Physiology and Biophysics, Aarhus University, Denmark. Her research area is membrane transport in general with specific focus on local signalling in renal epithelia and erythrocytes. She has been a physician since 1994 and received her Ph.D in 1999.




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Sue Quaggin

Dr. Susan Quaggin is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She practices Nephrology at St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto and is a Senior Scientist at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute. Her lab focuses on the molecular pathways that underlie formation and maintenance of the glomerular filtration barrier (GFB) – the site where the primary urinary filtrate is formed. Disruption of the GFB is the central component of most kidney diseases. Her lab has shown a key role for production of vascular endothelial growth factor by glomerular podocytes to establish the GFB. Mouse mutants engineered to express different levels of glomerular VEGF develop dramatic glomerular injuries, demonstrating that tight regulation of VEGF production is necessary. In 2008, her lab led a study that described the development of thrombotic microangiopathy in a subset of patients treated with VEGF inhibitors. Proof of principle studies in mice showed that deletion of VEGF from podocytes of adult mice results in a similar glomerular lesion that suggests the renal complications of VEGF inhibitors are ‘on-target’ effects. Ongoing efforts in the lab are aimed at elucidating the mechanism(s) of VEGF transport in the glomerulus and the role of related vascular pathways for glomerular health.

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Professor Giuseppe Remuzzi

Professor Remuzzi is Director at the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research. Professor Remuzzi was born in Bergamo, Italy in 1949. Upon completion of his medical training at the University of Pavia in 1974, he received specialty training in Hematology and Nephrology at the University of Milan. Since 1975, he has pursued his academic career at the Ospedali Riuniti of Bergamo, where he was appointed Professor of Nephrology and Director of the Department of Medicine and Transplantation in 1996. Since 1999, he is Director of the Department of Nephrology and Dialysis of the same hospital. The Negri Bergamo Laboratories, which he has directed since 1984, is a group of basic scientists, physiologists, pharmacologists, molecular and cellular biologists, pathologists and clinicians devoted to the study of renal disease. As director of the Negri Bergamo Laboratories and the affiliated Clinical Research Center for Rare Diseases “Aldo e Cele Dacco”, both divisions of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, he leads a diverse team of researchers studying human renal diseases and their corresponding experimental models from the perspective of pathophysiology and therapeutic intervention. He touched major advances in many areas of nephrology, with particular focus on platelet endothelial interactions, vascular prostaglandin biology, coagulation and renal disease, progression of renal disease, experimental models of glomerular damage, and transplant immunology and tolerance. He has made particular contribution to the understanding of the pathophysiology of Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, prostaglandin metabolism in pregnancy, renal vascular biology in uremia, the role of protein trafficking in renal disease progression, the induction of graft tolerance by intrathymic injection of donor antigens, the role of the co-stimulatory CD28-B67 pathway in transplant rejection and the prevention of renal and cardiovascular damage in diabetes. Professor Remuzzi serves on editorial boards of numerous journals including the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine and is member of the International Advisory Board of The Lancet. In recognition of his achievements, he was awarded honorary memberships of the Association of American Physicians and the Royal College of Physicians in 1998. In 2001 he was nominated for Chairman of the Research and Prevention Committee of the COMGAN (Commission on Global Advancement of Nephrology) of the International Society of Nephrology (ISN). In 2005 during the World Congress of Nephrology in Singapore he received the ISN Jean Hamburger Award. In 2006 he was invited by the Italian Health Minister to become member of the Commission: “Consiglio Superiore di Sanità”. In 2007 he received the prestigious John P. Peters Award during the annual American Society of Nephrology Congress in San Francisco. Prof. Remuzzi has authored and co-authored more than 920 scientific articles, reviews and monographs.

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Derek Roebuck

Derek Roebuck is Consultant Interventional Radiologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, UK, where he is part of the Renovascular Team. He has also worked in Australia, China and the United States of America. His clinical and research interests include paediatric renovascular disease, oncology and airway disease. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Society for Paediatric Interventional Radiology, President-Elect of the Council of the Section of Oncology of the Royal Society of Medicine, Radiology Chair of the International Childhood Liver Tumor Strategy Group (SIOPEL) and Chair of the Liver Working Group of the Children’s Cancer and Leukaemia Group. He is Assistant Editor of Paediatric Radiology and Associate Editor of the Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Oncology.

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Franz Schaefer

Franz Schaefer, M.D. is Professor of Paediatrics and Chief of the Paediatric Nephrology division at Heidelberg University Hospital. Dr. Schaefer received his M.D. at Würzburg University Medical School. He performed research scholarships at the Institute of Child Health, London, the University of Virginia and Stanford University. He established several international consortia such as the Mid European Paediatric PD Study Group (MEPPS), the European Study Group on Progressive Chronic Kidney Disease in Children (ESCAPE), the International Paediatric Peritonitis Registry (IPPR), and the International Paediatric PD Network (IPPN). He participates in clinical practice guideline development in the KDOQI Paediatric Nutrition workgroup, the KDIGO Acute Kidney Injury workgroup and the paediatric guideline board of the European Society of Hypertension. He is a current council member of the International Paediatric Nephrology Association (IPNA) and of the International Society of Peritoneal Dialysis (ISPD). Dr.Schaefer has published more than 250 articles and book chapters, and coedited the books "Comprehensive Paediatric Nephrology" and "Paediatric Dialysis". He serves as an Assistant Editor for Paediatric Nephrology, as Paediatric Section Editor for Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation and sits on the Editorial Boards of Peritoneal Dialysis International, BiomedCentral Nephrology and Current Paediatric Reviews.

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Dr Howard William Schnaper

H. William Schnaper is Professor and Vice Chair of Paediatrics at Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University (NU) in Chicago, USA, where he also co-directs the Center for Education and Career Development of the NU Clinical and Translational Science Institute. He received his paediatric nephrology training at Washington University in St. Louis and had additional research training at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, USA. His clinical and laboratory interests involve the pathogenesis of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis and signal transduction mechanisms in renal fibrogenesis. Dr. Schnaper is currently President-elect of the American Society of Paediatric Nephrology. He serves on the American Society of Nephrology Board of Advisors and is Medical Editor for the American Board of Paediatrics Subboard in Nephrology. He is on the editorial boards of Paediatric Nephrology and the American Journal of Physiology-Renal Physiology and co-edited the book, Clinical Paediatric Nephrology (Informa).

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Dr Claus Peter Schmidt

Claus Peter Schmitt graduated from medical school at the University of Freiburg, Germany. A 2 year scientific scholarship of the German Research Foundation, to analyze parathyroid hormone secretion kinetics and the impact on target organ function, was followed by a 6 year residency at the University Hospital of Children and Adolescent Medicine, Heidelberg, Germany. He was subsequently appointed Consultant for Paediatric Nephrology and Assistant Professor of Paediatrics, February, 2004.
Research activity has been focused on pathogenesis, treatment and outcome of renal osteodystrophy in children with chronic renal failure. Recent animal and in vitro studies indicate a number of beneficial cardiovascular effects of calcimimetic agents beyond the control of parathyroid function, e.g. antihypertensive action. A second focus of clinical and experimental research regards peritoneal dialysis.
Claus Schmitt is member of several national and international medical associations, including the International Paediatric Nephrology Association. He is member of the Editorial Board of Paediatric Nephrology and obtained numerous scientific awards.
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James Stanley

James C. Stanley is the Handleman Professor of Surgery and Director of the Cardiovascular Centre at the University of Michigan Medical School. He received his Medical Degree from that institution and after an internship at Philadelphia General Hospital, he completed a surgical residency at the University of Michigan. He was the Head of the Vascular Surgery Section from 1976-2004. He has an extensive clinical practice with a major focus on complex cerebrovascular and aortic disease, renovascular hypertension, splanchnic aneurysms, and paediatric arterial diseases. He maintains an ongoing interest in biomedical research and was the Director of the Jobst Vascular Research Laboratories from 1989-2004. He has authored more than 300 scientific articles and 150 textbook chapters. He served as Editor of the Journal of Vascular Surgery from 1991-1996. Dr Stanley has edited ten books, including two on renovascular hypertension, one on biologic and synthetic vascular prostheses, and four editions of Current Therapy in Vascular Surgery.

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Professor Vincente E Torres

Professor Vincente E Torres is currently Chair of the Division of Nephrology / Hypertension at the Mayo Medical School in Rochester. Professor Torres completed his medical training and Ph.D at the University of Barcelona, and after completing his internship at the Hospital Clinico y Provincial de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain and Mount Sinai Medical Center, Milwaukee he joined the Mayo Graduate School on a Nephrology Research Fellowship, before holding a variety of positions including consultant at the Mayo Clinic and Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Medical School. Professor Torres is a member of several editorial boards and author and co-author of more than 190 publications in peer-reviewed journals. Professor Torres’ main interests include inherited renal diseases, Glomerular diseases, Kidney and pancreas transplantation and Polycystic kidney disease, for which he was awarded the Jean Kaplan International Prize for Advancement in the Understanding of Polycystic Kidney Disease in 2007.

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Kjell Tullus

Kjell Tullus received his paediatric training in Stockholm Sweden where he worked for more the 25 years. In 2002 he moved to London to pick up a post at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. His main interests are hypertension, inflammatory diseases including lupus and vasculitis and urinary tract infections. He has published more then 150 papers.






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Dr Enrico Verrina

Enrico Verrina is one of the two representatives of the European Society of Paediatric Nephrology on the ERA-EDTA Registry Committee and has been working during the last three years in developing the new ESPN/ERA-EDTA Registry for Paediatric Patients with Established Renal Failure.
He is a paediatric nephrologist and Head of the Dialysis Unit in the Division of Paediatric Nephrology of the G. Gaslini Children’s Hospital in Genoa, Italy. He is the coordinator of the “Italian Registry of Paediatric Chronic Dialysis”, and member of the Board of the Italian Society for Paediatric Nephrology. He is Section Editor for “Diaysis of Paediatric Nephrology”, journal of the International Paediatric Nephrology Association, and author of 61 papers published on scientific journals included in “Index Medicus" and of 6 chapters of books on paediatric or nephrology issues.
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Dr Karlijn van Stralen

Karlijn van Stralen is the coördinator of the new ESPN registry. She is the contact person for all those who are (willing) to send data to the ESPN registry, or wish to participate in research projects. Besides working on the ESPN registry she is also working part-time for the ERA-EDTA registry, the registry for adult patients in Europe on dialysis or transplantation.
Before her career in Nephrology she did her PhD in epidemiology, in the field of deep venous thrombosis


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Dr Nicholas Webb

Dr Nicholas Webb is Consultant Paediatric Nephrologist at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital and Honorary Senior Lecturer in Child Health at the University of Manchester. He qualified from the University of Nottingham BMed Sci (Hons) BM BS in 1986. Following General Paediatric training appointments in the UK, he trained in Paediatric Nephrology in Melbourne, Brisbane, Toronto and Manchester, where he was appointed Consultant in 1994.

His MD thesis, awarded with distinction, investigated the role of vascular endothelial growth factor in the pathogenesis of childhood steroid sensitive nephrotic syndrome. His current research focuses on prospective controlled trials of immunosuppressive, antihypertensive and other therapies in childhood renal disease and renal transplantation.

Dr Webb has authored over 70 research papers and eight major book chapters in the field of Paediatric Nephrology and is the co-editor of Clinical Paediatric Nephrology and co-author of the Oxford Specialist Handbook of Paediatric Nephrology, both major international textbooks in the field published by Oxford University Press.

Dr Webb is Deputy Director of the Greater Manchester, Lancashire and South Cumbria Medicines for Children Local Research Network. He is on the Council of the European Society for Paediatric Nephrology and is former Research Secretary of the British Association for Paediatric Nephrology.

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