Plenary Speakers

Friday, April 8 

Human Origins and Common Diseases: Insights from Mitochondrial DNA
Doug Wallace, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania, USA

Dr Wallace’s rare bridging of anthropology and medicine provides an inspiring lecture on the origins of man that fits well with the theme of sustainability and diversity.
 
His lecture explains the basis of mitochondrial genetics and how it can be used to understand origins and migration patterns.  Dr. Wallace will look at how changes in mitochondrial genes may provide a selective advantage during the migration of people. He will also discuss a broader application of mitochondrial genetics leading to the understanding of today’s rare and common human diseases. 

Dr. Wallace is the Charles and Michael Barnett Endowed Chair of Pediatric Mitochondrial Medicine and Metabolic Disease and Director of the Center of Mitochondrial and Epigenomic Medicine at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He is also Professor at the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.
 
A member of the National Academy of Science, his work provides major insights into the evolutionary pressures used to identify the basis of common and rare diseases.
He shows that human mitochondrial DNA is inherited through the female, allowing mitochondrial DNA to be used to trace lineages.

Saturday, April 9 

Personal Perspectives on Hemodialysis and Transplantation
Robin Eady, St John's Institute of Dermatology, St Thomas' Hospital, UK

Dr Robin Eady is Emeritus Professor of Dermatology at King’s College in London. He is one of the longest surviving individuals with end-stage renal disease. 

In his lecture, he will recall key events that have affected clinical and technical progress of renal replacement therapy over almost half a century. Eady will give a personal perspective on life after transplantation and dependent on dialysis.

In 1967, he graduated in medicine from Guy’s Hospital Medical School, London. He trained in dermatology at Guy’s and the Institute of Dermatology, London. 

After junior and senior research posts funded by the Wellcome Trust, including a year’s fellowship in the University of Washington, he later became Professor of Experimental Dermatopathology, Consultant Dermatologist, and Dean at St John’s Institute of Dermatology. 

His clinical and research work over the past 30 years has concentrated on a group of rare genetic skin disorders, especially epidermolysis bullosa. He set up a national diagnostic laboratory, based at St Thomas’ Hospital in London and is an honorary member of the Royal Society of Medicine and a member of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

The Future of Renal Transplantation: Tolerance and Xenografts?
David H. Sachs, Massachusetts General Hospital, USA

Dr Sachs is the Director of the Transplantation Biology Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and  Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School.  Previously, he  was Chief of the Transplantation Biology Section and Chief of the Immunology Branch at the National Cancer Institute.
 
He and his colleagues successfully induced tolerance in 4 of 5 recipients of HLA single haplotype mismatched kidneys. By creating transient chimerism, they transplanted kidney and bone marrow from the donor. His team also effectively transplanted pig kidneys into baboons using a recently developed pig strain in which the gene encoding alpha-1,3-galactosyltransferase (GalT), associated with hyperacute rejection, was knocked out.

Sach’s research achievements include discovering Ia (Class II) antigens, developing monoclonal antibodies to MHC antigens and a unique large animal transplantation model using miniature swine.  He has also used mixed marrow reconstitution to induce specific transplantation tolerance and study specific transplantation tolerance to allografts and xenografts in murine, swine and primate models. 

He won the 2005 Roche Ernest Hodge Memorial Award, the highest award bestowed by the American Society of Transplantation.  In 2006, he was awarded an Honorary Degree from the University of Nantes, France and received the 2009 Martin Prize for Excellence in Clinical Research.

Renal Disease in Indigenous Populations: Lessons from the Australian Aborigine
Wendy Hoy, University of Queensland, Australia

Dr Wendy Hoy has led numerous studies to better understand why certain populations are at an increased risk of developing kidney disease, such as the Tiwi of Australia, populations in South Africa, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, and other countries. 

Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Chronic Disease at the University of Queensland, she is world renown for her work on the risk for kidney disease, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease in disadvantaged or high risk populations. 

A major focus of her research is the role of the intrauterine environment and early life events, including infections, to disease susceptibility. She has stimulated studies of primary and secondary prevention, genetics, outcomes research and cost-effectiveness evaluations. 

Dr Hoy was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2010, for her contributions to knowledge of chronic disease on high risk populations, and to health services reform, including in Australia’s Indigenous population.  

Sunday, April 10 

Membranous Nephropathy: Journey from Rat to Man
David J. Salant, Boston University School of Medicine, USA

Dr Salant will discuss findings from several years of work by groups in the Heymann nephritis model of membranous nephropathy in rats.

He is Professor of Medicine and Chief of Nephrology at Boston University Medical Center. After graduating from Witwatersrand University Medical School in South Africa, he completed his clinical training at Johannesburg General Hospital.

Salant has conducted extensive research on immune disorders of the kidneys, authoring over 150 scientific publications, reviews and book chapters. His work has focused on mechanisms of immune deposition, the role of complement in glomerular diseases and the structural biology of the podocyte. He was one of the earliest proponents of the notion that podocyte injury forms the basis of most, if not all, proteinuric kidney diseases. Salant was among the first to identify the podocyte as the primary target of injury in antibody-mediated glomerular injury.

Dr Salant played a prominent educational role nationally as member and chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine in Nephrology. In 2008, he received the Outstanding Physician in Nephrology award from the National Kidney Foundation of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Vermont.

Preeclampsia: New Insights into the Cause and Treatment
S. Ananth Karumanchi, Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard School of Medicine, USA

Dr. Karumanchi’s work sheds light on preeclampsia, a disease that has remained elusive for decades. His developments have led to diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for this devastating condition in pregnant women.
 
In this lecture, he will demonstrate that high levels of soluble endoglin anticipate the symptoms of preeclampsia and may be used as a reliable biomarker for preterm preeclampsia.

Karumanchi is currently an Associate Professor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and received his medical degree from Kilpauk Medical College and University of Madras, India. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Henry Ford Hospital Detroit, Michigan and carried out a fellowship in nephrology at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Boston, Massachusetts.

In 2008, Dr. Karumanchi became an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His current research focuses on the role of angiogenic growth factors and inhibitors in the pathogenesis of pregnancy complications such as preeclampsia and gestational hypertension.

He was awarded the American Society of Nephrology - Carl Gottschalk Research Scholar Award in 2002, Preeclampsia Foundation – Hope Award in 2006, American Society of Hypertension – Young Scholar Award in 2007, American Heart Association - Established Investigator Award in 2007.

Monday, April 11 

The Autoimmune Basis of Systemic Lupus
Carola Garcia de Vinuesa, The Australian National University, Australia

Carola Vinuesa’s lecture will unravel the underlying basis of lupus. Her work has led to the discovery of genes important for immune regulation and memory. It has also identified a novel pathway of posttranscriptional control of gene expression to prevent autoimmunity.

Her group recently identified a critical role for T follicular helper cells in autoantibody-mediated autoimmune diseases and is investigating the mechanisms that regulate this T helper cell subset.  These studies are very relevant to understand the underlying autoimmune defects of systemic lupus erythematosus.

Dr Vinuesa is Senior Medical Research Fellow and Professor of Immunology at the Australian National University (ANU). Born in Spain, she obtained her medical degree at the University Autonoma of Madrid and undertook specialist clinical training in the UK. In 2000, she was awarded a PhD by the University of Birmingham. A year later, she received a Wellcome Trust International Travelling prize Fellowship to carry out postdoctoral work at The John Curtin School for Medical Research at ANU.

Since 2006, she has led the Humoral Immunity and Autoimmunity Group at ANU. She received the 2008 Science Minister’s Prize for Life Scientist of the year and the 2009 Gottschalk Medal from the Australian Academy of Sciences.

Renal Antioxidant Defense Systems
Toshio Miyata, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan

Cellular Defense Systems in Hypoxia: Mechanisms for Renal Protection
Masayuki Yamamoto, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan

Dr Toshio Miyata and Dr Masayuki Yamamoto will give an exciting plenary talk on the discovery of new antioxidant defense mechanisms. Findings that may lead to novel treatments for kidney disease. 

Studies led by Dr Yamamoto have identified Keap1 as an intracellular sensor for oxidative stress, which then activates Nrf2 to generate an antioxidant defense. New drugs such as bardoxolone methyl (Reata Pharmaceuticals) activate Nrf2 and are currently being tested in a Phase II human clinical study of diabetic nephropathy. Dr Miyata will also discuss other ways to protect against hypoxic injury by maintaining levels of hypoxia inducible factor (HIF).  HIF is a nuclear transcription factor that is turned on by hypoxia primarily as a protective response, but which can be degraded by a family of prolyl hydroxylases (PHDs).

Yamamoto is the Dean of Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine. His work on the Nrf2-Keap1 system has been published in both Nature and Cell.  Miyata is Professor of Medicine and Chairman of the United Centers for Advanced Research and Translational Medicine at Tohoku University. He is a leader in the role of antioxidant pathways in protecting against renal injury.

Tuesday, April 12 

Rare Renal Diseases: Bedside to Bench and Back
Fiona E. Karet, University of Cambridge, UK

Dr Fiona Karet is an author of the recent UK Renal Association's Rare Kidney Diseases: An Integrated Strategy for Patients in the U.K.

Professor of Nephrology at the University of Cambridge and attending nephrologist at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, she graduated from University College London and completed clinical training in London and Cambridge.

After a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale, Dr. Karet returned to Cambridge in 1999 as a Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Research Fellow, and was awarded a personal Chair there in 2005.

In the same year she established the Renal Genetics and Tubular Disorders Service at Addenbrooke's. She is also Director of Graduate Studies in Medical Genetics and sits on the University's 'Women in Science, Engineering and Technology Initiative' steering committee.

Karet's research has focused on understanding the mechanisms of distal renal tubular homeostatic function, particularly acid-base balance. Her approach investigates rare single gene disorders as a gateway to understanding normal physiology, and is accompanied by her clinical activities directed towards those with rare and/or heritable kidney problems.