Adrian Covic
Institution: “Grigore T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy
Location: Iași, Romania
Adrian Covic is a Professor of Nephrology and Internal Medicine at the “Grigore T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, the Director of the Nephrology Clinic and the Dialysis and Transplantation Center in Iasi, Romania. In the past he served as President of the Romanian Society of Nephrology and Secretary Treasurer of ERA-EDTA.
Prof. Covic started his clinical and research activity as a fellow in Nephrology in Manchester and Amiens. Later he performed clinical research at the Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio. He received a Ph.D. on: “Cardiovascular abnormalities and its determinant factors in chronic renal failure” in 1997. Since 2007, he is a FRCP (London) and became in 2009 a member of the Romanian Academy of Medical Sciences. From 2011 he is also a Fellow of the ERA EDTA (FERA).
Prof. Covic published more than 410 original and review papers in peer-reviewed journals, 14 books and 22 chapters. The current Hirsch Index is 48.
He is an Associate Editor for NDT, and Editor in Chief (Nephrology) for the International Journal of Urology and Nephrology, and editor / reviewer for several prestigious journals.
His main areas of interest are: cardiovascular complications in renal disease, CKD-MBD, renal anaemia, peritoneal dialysis, and acute renal failure.
Prof. Covic is the Vice-Rector (Research) of the University of Medicine “Gr. T. POPA” Iasi, Romania and a board member of KDIGO, ERBP, and ERA-EDTA working groups – EURECAM and CKD-MBD.
Prof Covic has organized several regional European educational courses under the auspices of ERA EDTA and ISN. For a mandate he has been chair of the ISN/COMGAN Eastern Europe.
An De Vriese
Institution: St. John’s Hospital
Location: Bruges, Belgium
An De Vriese is head of the Department of Internal Medicine and of the Division of Nephrology and Infectious Disease in St. John’s Hospital, Bruges.
She is author of over 140 publications in peer-reviewed medical journals. Her interest is focussed on clinical studies in hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis.
An De Vriese received her degree in Medicine summa cum laude from the Ghent University in 1992. She also studied at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, RSA and performed research at the Institute for Anatomy and Cell Biology, Ruprecht-Karls-University, Heidelberg, and at the Institute de Recherches Servier, Paris. She was Research Assistant of the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research and obtained a Ph.D. in Medical Science in 2001.
Kai-Uwe Eckardt
Institution: Charité
Location: Berlin, Germany
Kai-Uwe Eckardt is Head of the Department of Nephrology and Medical Intensive Care at the Charité in Berlin, Germany. He attained an MD from the University of Münster in 1985 and obtained residency and fellowship training in pathology, physiology, internal medicine and nephrology at the Universities of Münster, Hannover, Zurich, Oxford and Berlin. From 2004 to 2017 he was Chair of Nephrology and Hypertension at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, where he also served as Vice Dean for Research and International Afffairs from 2009-2016.
Dr. Eckardt´s major scientific interests lie in the molecular mechanisms and relevance of oxygen sensing and the development of acute and chronic renal injury. He was chairman of a collaborative research centre on kidney injury, founded by the German Research Foundation and is principal investigator of the German Chronic Kidney Disease (GCKD) study. Dr. Eckardt is a past council member of the ERA-EDTA and current member of the Executive Council of the ISN. He has served as program chair for the World Congress of Nephrology in 2009 and 2017. He was also a founding Executive Committee member and co-chair of Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO).
Danilo Fliser
Institution: University Clinic of Saarland
Location: Homburg/Saar, Germany
Danilo Fliser has been the Director of the Internal Medicine Clinic IV at the University Clinic of Saarland since 2007.
He has won the following German research prizes:
2005 – Franz Volhard Prize
2004 – Bernd Tersteegen Prize
1995 – Nils Alwall Prize
Maria Guedes Marques
Institution: Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra
Location: Coimbra, Portugal
Maria Guedes Marques (M.D.) born in 12th January 1983 in Oporto, Portugal; mother of two baby boys, finished her Ph.D. degree in Nephrology at Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra, Portugal in 2016.
Her previous experience involved internal medicine, clinical nephrology, hemodialysis and intensive care training in Hospital dos Covões; renal transplantation training in Hospitais Universidade Coimbra; vascular access ultrasound training in Parc Tauli Hospital, Barcelona; peritoneal dialysis training in Hospital Sto. António, Porto; renal pathology training in Hospital Curry Cabral, Lisbon; interventional nephrology in Nephrocare Lumiar, and glomerular diseases training in Glomerular Center of Columbia University Medical Center, New York, all with approval in good standing.
She is currently a nephrology assistant in the Renal Transplantation Unit of the Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra; and interventional nephrologist in Vascular Access Center of Nephrocare Coimbra, responsible of vascular access Doppler ultrasound evaluation since 2016.
She is member of the Portuguese group of vascular study; Vascular Access Committee of the National Committee of Dialysis Attendance and council member of the Board of the Vascular Access Society.
She has published several papers as first author in international peer-reviewed journals. She has also presented several oral communications in national and international meetings, many as guest speaker and practical guide.
Ewout Hoorn
Institution: Erasmus Medical Center
Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands
Ewout Hoorn is Professor of Nephrology at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. His research interests include basic and clinical aspects of renal tubular transport and the link with human disease, including electrolyte disorders, hypertension, and chronic kidney disease. He coordinates a tertiary referral clinical for renal tubular disorders and the Academic Center of Excellence “Kidney & Hypertension”. He also is the coordinating PI of a national research consortium that studies the potential renoprotective role of potassium in chronic kidney disease. His research is supported by the Dutch Kidney Foundation, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, and the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
Nine Knoers
Institution:University Medical Centre Groningen
Location: Groningen, Netherlands
Nine Knoers has been the Chair of the Department of Genetics at the University Medical Centre Groningen since 2018. She received her M.D. (1986) and Ph.D. (cum laude, 1990) from the Catholic University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. She was trained and certified as Clinical Geneticist at the Radboud University Medical Centre Nijmegen. From 2011 until 2018, she was Chair of the Department of Genetics at the University of Medical Centre Utrecht, The Netherlands. She was Chair of the Dutch Society of Clinical Genetics (2007-2015) and Member of the Dutch Health Council (2008-2018). In 2017, she became Honorary Member of the Dutch Society of Clinical Genetics, as recognition of major contributions to Clinical Genetics and to professionalization of the Society. Her major research effort focuses on the identification of genes for inherited renal disorders and on their pathophysiology to find clues for treatment.
Over the past years, her team has substantially contributed to the elucidation and characterization of genes involved in hereditary kidney diseases, among which genes for nephrogenic diabetes insipidus, for renal hypomagnesemia, for syndromic nephronophthisis, and for congenital abnormalities of the kidney and urinary tract (CAKUT). Nine has an extensive (inter)national network, is member of European Consortia on genetic renal disorders (EURenOmics, ERKNet) and coordinated the Dutch Scientific Consortium on renal ciliopathies “Kouncil”.
Nine was awarded the Donald Seldin Lectureship of the International Society of Nephrology (2013), as a recognition of a major contribution in basic science related to nephrology and the Catherijne oeuvre award 2016 (Catharijne Foundation) for groundbreaking contributions to nephrogenetics. She has published over 300 scientific papers, including papers in Nature Genetics, Science, Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine and 28 Chapters in books.
In the last 10 years, she delivered >250 invited lectures. With more than 17,900 citations to date, her current H-index is 72 (Scopus December 2023). She has successfully supervised 28 PhD students, many of whom have continued their careers in academics.
Hiddo Lambers Heerspink
Institution: University Medical Center Groningen
Location: Groningen, Netherlands
Hiddo Lambers Heerspink is affiliated with the Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacology of the University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands. He received his PhD degree from the medical faculty of the University Medical Center Groningen in 2008. He then worked as a post-doctoral fellow at The George Institute in Sydney, Australia where he investigated the effects of blood pressure lowering regimens on renal and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with renal impairment. Based on this work, he was awarded a young investigator grant and subsequently in 2015 a consolidator investigator grant from the Dutch organisation of scientific research.
Since 2010, Doctor Lambers Heerspink has held a position as a Clinical Pharmacologist at the University Medical Center Groningen. He is currently Professor Clinical Trials and Personalized Medicine. His main research interests include optimising treatment strategies and finding new therapeutic approaches to halt the progression of renal and cardiovascular disease. His particular clinical research interest is to identify determinants of individual treatment responses and ways to optimize drug response in individual patients. To achieve these goals he is involved in various international clinical trials and uses biomarkers and imaging techniques to unravel pathways and determinants of therapy response.
Patrick Murray
Institution: University College Dublin
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Patrick Murray is Professor of Clinical Pharmacology in University College Dublin, and a consultant physician (clinical pharmacologist & nephrologist) at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland.
He received his medical education at University College Dublin, Ireland.
Following his internship at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin, he completed a residency in internal medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
He completed fellowship training programs in nephrology, critical care medicine, and clinical pharmacology at the University Of Chicago Hospitals in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
He is board-certified in nephrology, critical care medicine, and clinical pharmacology.
He practiced as an intensivist, nephrologist, and clinical pharmacologist at the University of Chicago Hospitals from 1996–2008, serving as the fellowship training program director in nephrology, also directing the Acute Dialysis Service.
He has a longstanding interest in research and education to improve the prevention, diagnosis, and therapy of acute kidney injury and nephrotoxicity, and the pharmacotherapy of patients with kidney disease. He is a member of several international consensus groups that have produced guidelines for research and practice in the field of acute kidney injury (ADQI, AKIN, KDOQI).
Since 2008, he has been the Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at University College Dublin, and a Consultant in Nephrology & Clinical Pharmacology at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital. He is Chair of the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital Drugs & Therapeutics Committee. He is the Clinical Director of the UCD-Mater Clinical Research Centre. In 2011, he was appointed Associate Dean for International Affairs in the UCD School of Medicine and Medical Science. In 2012, he was appointed Director of the Dublin Centre for Clinical Research (DCCR) Consortium Network, and also Clinical Director of the Irish Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (ICRIN). Since December 2012, he has been the Dean and Head of the School of Medicine at UCD.
Rainer Oberbauer
Institution: Medical University of Vienna
Location: Vienna, Austria
Rainer Oberbauer is Professor of Medicine and Director of the Department of Nephrology & Dialysis and Transplant Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna.
Dr. Oberbauer received his MD from the University of Vienna, Austria in 1990 and his MSc in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health, USA in 2005. He completed his fellowship in nephrology at the Universities of Vienna and Stanford, became Assistant Professor of Medicine in Vienna in 1996 and advanced to Associate Professor in 1999. In 2006 he was promoted to Director of the Renal Department of the Elisabethinen Hospital, Linz, Austria and 2014 to Director of the Department for Nephrology and Dialysis, Internal Medicine III, Medical University of Vienna.
Dr. Oberbauer has a longstanding clinical and scientific interest in renal transplantation and he has published numerous experimental as well as clinical papers in this field. He is a member of many international transplant societies, current chair of EKITA and is EIC of Transplant Int and on the editorial board of a number of other major international transplant journals. He has also received several academic awards for his scientific papers, which mainly focus on genetic and clinical epidemiology and new immunosuppressive strategies following renal transplantation.
Charles Pusey
Institution: Imperial College London
Location: London, UK
Charles D Pusey DSc FRCP FRCPath FMedSci FRSB is Emeritus Professor of Medicine at Imperial College London, and Honorary Consultant Physician in the Directorate of Renal Medicine and Transplantation at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. He qualified in Medicine from Cambridge University and Guy’s Hospital, London, and trained in Renal Medicine in the Royal Air Force and at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital. His research is focused on autoimmunity and inflammation in renal disease, including the mechanisms underlying primary and secondary glomerulonephritis, and he has a particular clinical interest in systemic vasculitis.
Ton Rabelink
Institution: Leiden University Medical Center
Location: Leiden, Netherlands
Ton Rabelink is Professor and Chair of Medicine, and Head of
the Division of Nephrology and the Einthoven Laboratory for
Experimental Vascular Medicine at the Leiden University Medical
Center, Leiden, Netherlands. He received his MD and PhD degrees
from Utrecht University, Netherlands and completed fellowships in
internal medicine and nephrology. His main research interests are vascular
biology and its implications for renal function, organ transplantation
and the development of cardiovascular disease in patients with
renal disease, as well as the use of stem cells to restore kidney function.
Eva Schrezenmeier
Institution: Charité
Location: Berlin, Germany
Eva Schrezenmeier is an Attending Physician at the Department of Nephrology and Intensive Care Medicine at Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin.
She completed her medical education at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, with clinical clerkships at Cleveland Clinic, Sheba Medical Center, and McGill University.
Dr. Schrezenmeier earned her Doctorate for her research on (pro)renin receptor signal transduction.
Her postdoctoral research is conducted in Nephrology and the German Rheumatism Research Center Berlin.
Her research interests focus on B cell immunology, particularly the roles of protective and pathological B and plasma cells in autoreactivity as well as alloreactivity.
Siebe Spijker
Institution: Leiden University Medical Center
Location: Leiden, Netherlands
Siebe Spijker is a clinician-scientist, focusing on transplantation, genetics and regenerative medicine. He obtained his PhD degree at the Leiden University Medical Center studying the differentiation characteristics of human pancreatic beta-cells. He was awarded the NVE-Ipsen prize from the Dutch Society for Endocrinology and the Gerritzen Award for best Thesis in Diabetes Research. During his internal medicine trainings, his (research) interest shifted to the kidney. In 2018, he performed a postdoctoral research year in the group of prof. Melissa Little at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne to engage in renal stem cell research and CRISPR Cas9 gene editing.
After finishing his medical trainings, Siebe started his own research group using organoids to model (genetic) kidney disease and works as a transplant nephrologist in the LUMC. His aim is to link fundamental research using stem cells to daily clinical practice.
Roser Torra
Institution: Puigvert Foundation and Autonomous University
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Roser Torra is chief of Clinical Nephrology and runs an Inherited Kidney Diseases Clinic at the Nephrology Department of the Puigvert Foundation in Barcelona, Spain. She is a Professor of Medicine at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She started her work in inherited kidney disorders in 1994. Since then, she has been involved in clinical practice and research into genetic–renal diseases. She has published over 200 national and international publications about hereditary kidney diseases. Prof. Torra currently participates in multiple inherited kidney disorders trials, supervises doctoral theses on inherited kidney disease and acts as a reviewer/advisor in this field for several journals, meetings, project evaluating agencies and government policy making bodies. She has participated in several Kidney Disease – Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) meetings.
Prof. Torra is a president-elect of the ERA (European Renal Association).
Jack Wetzels
Institution: Radboud University Nijmegen
Location: Nijmegen, Netherlands
Jack F M Wetzels (1954) was born in Heerlen, The Netherlands. He studied Medicine at the Radboud University Nijmegen, and received his MD in 1980. He was trained in Internal Medicine and Nephrology at the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical center. He received his Ph.D. in 1989. From 1990 to 1992 he worked as a postdoctoral fellow under supervision of Robert W Schrier at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, CO, USA. Since 1992 he is working as academic nephrologist. In 2002 he was appointed Professor of Nephrology at the Department of Nephrology at Radboud University Nijmegen. His chair is committed to teaching and research with an emphasis on the diagnosis and treatment of patients with glomerular diseases.