A new initiative will be launched at WCN 2011 in Vancouver: during the President's Dinner on Monday 11 April, an auction will collect funds for the victims of the disaster in Japan. The help will be coordinated by the Japanese Society of Nephrology.

Items for the auction have been donated by ISN Councillors and Executive Committee members, our Canadian hosts and many other ISN supporters.

We hope to be able to provide the maximum support to our Japanese colleagues through this initiative, and look forward to it becoming a tradition during future WCNs.

The first ISN Nexus Symposium in Asia was entitled Kidney and the Vascular System: Emerging Culprits in Pathogenesis and Advances in Therapy  was held in Kyoto from April 15 to 18, 2010. A total of 966 participants attended the event and it ended with great success.

A new nephrology society, called 'FRONT-J (Forum of Researchers on Nephrology and Translational Medicine in Japan) has now been launched with more than 150 of the most active, top young Japanese nephrologists (from 40 to 55 years old). This group initiated its own website where the members can communicate and share useful information such as clinical studies, educational slides.  They can also use open resources (research materials). An English version of this site will be available in a month so that foreign nephrologists can access this site and hopefully communicate within members and utilize open resources.

Contributing to the global advancement of nephrology is one of the leading considerations of this group. Such a glass-root movement is important to support ISN’s mission.