Annals of Nephrology

Dr. Benjamin D Cowley is Professor of Medicine and Chief of Nephrology & Hypertension at University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Dr. Cowley completed undergraduate school at Rice University and received his MD degree from Baylor College of Medicine. He completed post-graduate education in Internal Medicine, Nephrology, and Biochemistry at the University of Kansas Medical Center. He joined as a faculty at the University of Kansas Medical Center. In 2002, he moved to the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, where he is Chief of Nephrology & Hypertension and John Gammill Professor in Polycystic Kidney Disease. Dr. Cowley is Chair of the Board of Trustees of the PKD Foundation and is past-Chair of the PKD Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Committee. He has been involved in PKD research for more than 20 years. He trained under Dr. Jared Grantham, co-founder of the PKD Foundation and distinguished physician at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Dr. Cowley has been named one of Oklahoma’s “Top Doctors” by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. for the past 7 years.

Dr. John Albert St.Cyr is Chief Medical Officer for RCRI, Inc. (Minneapolis, MN), and ImmuMed, Inc. (Minneapolis, MN). Dr. Albert St.Cyr a cardiovascular surgeon, received his B.A., M.S., M.D., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. Dr. Albert St.Cyr completed his general surgical training at the University of Minnesota and completed his cardiovascular surgical fellowship training at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, CO. Dr. St.Cyr has extensive research credentials, is widely published, has received numerous research grants, has numerous patents in various fields of interest, and has presented at many medical/surgical conferences/meetings. Dr. St. Cyr has consulted for many medical companies, such as a surgical/medical consultant for Medtronic, Inc. (Physiological Research Laboratories, a facility of Medtronic, Inc., Minneapolis, MN), a medical/surgical consultant for NAMSA/Integra, Inc. (Minneapolis, MN). Dr. St. Cyr is a member of numerous scientific research, medical, and surgical societies. His research interests include Congenital heart surgery, Congenital heart disease, Myocardial metabolism, Adenine nucleotides, Dialysis and Stem cell research.

Dr. Yuanyuan Zhang is a director of tissue therapy and assistant professor in the Wake Forest Institute for Regeneration Medicine (WFIRM) at the University of Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He received his M.D. from Jiangxi Medical Collage in China, earned his spot as attending urologist in department of urology at the First Affiliated Hospital in Nanchang University, China. After his twelve-year career as a urology and renal transplant surgeon, Dr. Zhang decided to do biomedical research on stem cells and regeneration medicine when he entered PhD training program in University of Lausanne in Switzerland. After obtaining PhD and completing postdoctoral training, he was a faculty member at the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center and then at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, a premier environment for research in cell therapy and tissue engineering in surgery. Dr. Yuanyuan Zhang has conducted research in stem cell, biomaterials, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine in urology and kidney diseases for more than 20 years. He was the first to demonstrate that stem cells exist in urine and that those cells (urine derived stem cells, USCs), with self-renewal and multipotent capacity, have a number of potential applications in cell-based therapy or noninvasive diagnosis in urology or kidney diseases. He has a productive record of 135 original peer-reviewed research, review and chapter publications. In addition, he has received 14 patents for his work and applied for 2 more. As a PI, Dr. Zhang led NIH-funded studies in the fields at 1) Autogolous stem cells for urinary incontinence (2014, NIH R56); 2) Urinary tract tissue reconstruction with bone marrow stem cells (2006, NIH R21). Dr. Zhang has specific training and expertise in key research areas required for this application. His research interests include stem cells in renal biology, cell therapy, tissue regeneration, patient specific iPSCs for disease modeling, diabetic nephropathy, cystic diseases of the kidney, and obstructive nephropathy.

Dr. Awad A Magbri is currently working as Director and Interventional Nephrologist in Dialysis Access Center of Pittsburgh/Renal Endocrine Associates at Presbyterian Church. Dr. Magbri completed Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery M.B.Ch.B (MD) from Benghazi University, Libya. He obtained Doctorate of Medicine (MD) from the National University of Ireland/University College Galway. Dr. Magbri research interests include: Encouraging researches in the fields of medicine in the third world countries and nurturing the spirit of investigating new avenues in medicine to help raise the awareness and standards of health care to all patients irrespective of ethnicity, religion affiliation, or social status; Exploring new approaches and avenues to maintain healthy vascular access to patients with end stage kidney diseases; Coaching and educating young doctors and medical students to assume their future role in community medicine.

Dr. Somjot (Sam) Brar is the Director for Vascular & Endovascular Medicine at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Los Angeles. Dr. Brar is the Chair for Regional Research Committee at Kaiser Permanente Pasadena, California. Dr. Brar is Assistant Program Director in Department of Cardiology and he is also Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine from University of California at Los Angeles. He completed his Degree (1992 - 1996) from University of California, San Diego. He completed his M.D. (1996 - 2000) from Sackler School of Medicine, New York. He completed his Masters in Public Health from Harvard University, Boston. He is one among the 40 cardiologist to serve as the Associate Director for the largest annual interventional cardiology meeting for a 2 year term. Selection is very competitive with approximately 50% of the associate directors from international institutions and all very prominent leaders in the field. He is the only cardiologist selected from that region which includes major institutions such as UCLA, Cedars-Sinai, USC, and Loma Linda. Furthermore, on multiple occasions. He have served as Faculty for the largest annual cardiology meeting sponsored by the American College of Cardiology. In this role He served as the chairman for sessions and gave invited lectures. He have been interviewed by the media on multiple occasions, both to discuss research published by my team and as an expert to comment on research done by others. He serve on the editorial board for the European Heart Journal. The EHJ is one of the top cardiology journals with an impact factor of 14. The editorial board is very selective with only a small number of editorial board members from outside Europe. Other Americans on the editorial board are internationally recognized leaders in cardiovascular medicine from institutions such as the Mayo Clinic, Harvard, and Columbia University. Dr. Brar is an interventional cardiologist and endovascular specialist. His research involves understanding how to improve outcomes for members undergoing cardiovascular and thoracic aortic procedures and surgical alternatives.

Prof. Akira Sugawara belongs to the Department of Molecular Endocrinology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan. He graduated from Tohoku University School of Medicine on 1987 (M.D.), and got Ph.D. in 1991 from Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine. He performed Postdoctoral Fellowship in William Chin's laboratory at the Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston from 1991 to 1994. His area of expertise includes general internal medicine, endocrinology and metabolism and hypertension and nephrology. His research interest includes 1) molecular biology of nuclear hormone receptors 2) etiology of high blood pressure 3) pathophysiology of diabetic nephropathy 4) gene regulation of aldosterone synthase 5) epigenetics of hypertension and diabetes mellitus.

Dr. Andrzej J Jaroszynski obtained his PhD from Medical University of Lublin (Poland) in 1997. Currently, Dr. Jaroszynski is serving as a professor in Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce (Poland). He is a specialist in internal medicine, nephrology, and family medicine. Dr. Jaroszynski serves as a chair for the Department of Nephrology at the Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce as well as the chair for the Department of Family Medicine at the same University. He has got more than 160 publications in his academic/research career, acting mainly on the following subjects: cardionephrology, sudden cardiac death, heart failure, vascular calcification, atherosclerosis, peritoneal dialysis. He is the member for several professional organizations.

Dr. Yackoob Kassim Seedat is working as Emeritus Professor at University of KwaZulu-Natal and King Edward VIII Hospital. Dr. Seedat career started at Secondary School, Sastri College, Durban. Undergraduate career in medicine, University College (1950-1956), Internship-Medicine, Surgery, Jervis Street Hospital, Dublin (1957-1958). Various positions King Edward VIII Hospital (1958-1978); Academic Registrar Royal Infirmary, Manchester, England (1967-1968); Intern. Dublin, Eire 1957-1958; S A Renal Soc, (1986-1988); President of the Southern African Hypertension Society (1981-1983). He received several Awards which include: Special Award; Silver Award for Research and Teaching; Illuminated citation Golden Jubilee Award Colleges of Medicine of South Africa; South African Medical Association Merit Award for Extraordinary Service in Medicine; Developing World Award. Dr. Seedat Publications is mainly on Hypertension and Renal Medicine (439) in medical journals and chapters in books (38). Presented 357 papers at (127) international and (230) national congresses and societies.

Dr. Yoshihide Ogawa is working as Chair for Musashino Tokushukai Hospital and Emeritus Professor in University of the Ryukyus. He is also a Consultant and Chair at Kidney Disease Center in Tokyo-West Tokushukai Hospital. Dr. Ogawa worked as Associate Professor of Urology in Juntendo University; Visiting Professor at Mayo Clinic and Iowa University. He completed his M.D. from Virginia State Board of Medicine, Ph.D. from Keio University and Graduation from School of Medicine, Keio University. From 1976-1978 he was a clinical fellow in Transplant Surgery at Medical College of Virginia. His research interests include Urolithiasis and oxalate metabolism, Kidney transplantation and dialysis, Pediatric urology.

Dr. Erich K Lang is a radiologist at SUNY Downstate Medical Center Radiology and is affiliated with Kings County Hospital Center, SUNY Downstate Medical Center University Hospital of Brooklyn and VA New York Harbor Healthcare System-Brooklyn. Dr. Lang accepts multiple insurance plans including Aetna, MVP Health Plan and Magna Care. He received his medical degree from University of Vienna Faculty of Medicine and has been in practice for more than 20 years. He completed his residency program in Radiology at Johns Hopkins University. He is interested in Vascular & Interventional Radiology.

Dr. Rafael E Chavez is a Consultant Surgeon in University Hospital of Wales and Honorary Clinical Lecturer in Cardiff University School of Medicine. He received his PhD from Cambridge University. He got qualified in Medicine and worked as a Specialist in General Surgery at the Central University of Venezuela. He then worked as a Senior Lecturer and Consultant Surgeon at the University Hospitals of Caracas, where he obtained extensive experience in gastrointestinal, hepatobiliary surgery and emergency and trauma surgery. He was actively involved in research and teaching at undergraduate and graduate levels. He worked as a Clinical Fellow in transplantation at Addenbrookes Hospital for nine years where he performed renal transplants and liver transplants, vascular access and general surgery on transplant and dialysis patients and a very substantial number of multiorgan donor procedures. Dr. Chavez became Lead for Quality and Safety of Transplantation and Nephrology at UHW. He became Research and Development Lead for the Surgery Clinical Board. His Research interests include areas of ischemia and reperfusion. In recent years he had specifically worked in renal ischemia and reperfusion in the rat, with a focus on complement, leukocyte and endothelial activation and molecular events of preconditioning. He also participate in multicentre clinical trials, of which he has been Principal Investigator for the UK. Dr. Chavez has authored numerous papers and book chapters, mostly in the area of transplantation and gastrointestinal surgery.

Dr. Cheorl-Ho Kim is working as Professor in Department of Biological, Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea; since 2006. Dr. Kim has received his MS and PhD in The University of Tokyo during the period of 1985-1990. He has successfully completed his Administrative responsibilities as Genome Program Head, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology on 1990-1996 and Chairman, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, COM, Dongguk University during 1996-2006. His research has included the moleculr biology of gene expression, Golgi glycosyltransferase, oncognenesis, cancer metastasis and angiogenesis. He has authored 362 research articles/books with H-index 37. He is a member of International Scientific Advisory Board Member, International Symposium for Glycosyltransferases (GlycoT 2006), IUBMB symposium, Tsukuba and International Symposium for Glycosyltransferases (GlycoT 2008), Emory University, GA, USA, International Biochemical and Molecular Engineering 2013, San Antonio, TX, USA, and 5th World Congress of Biotechnology 2014, Valencia, Spain. He was served as a Key Note Speaker of 5th WCB. Key Note Speaker and Organizing member of 2nd World Congress of Glycobiology, 2016 August 29-31. Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

Dr. James (Hong-Long) Ji is working as an Associate Professor in Molecular and Cellular Biology, Director in Physiological Core, Senior Investigator of Texas Lung Injury Institute at University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler. Dr. Ji received several honors and awards like Travel Travel Award and Invited Speaker-FASEB Summer Conference; Travel Award and Honored Speaker, International Symposium of Environment and Health; Award of Liaoning 1000 Talent Faculty Project, etc. His research interest include regulation of transepithelial ion transport in renal and lungs.

Dr.Mony Fraer is a nephrologist in Iowa City and is affiliated with University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. He received his medical degree from University of Medicine and Pharmacy Pope Gregory and has been in practice for more than twenty years. Dr.Fraer worked as Staff Physician at Mercy Hospital, Iowa City and then as Assistant Professor in Division of Nephrology, University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics, Iowa City. He is currently working as an Associate Professor in Division of Nephrology at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. The clinical part of his work involves all aspects of care for patients with kidney diseases (including kidney transplant, kidney stones and dialysis) both in an inpatient (all 3 hospitals in the area) and outpatient setting. From an administrative perspective he had been the director of dialysis for UIHC since 2015. He is an Associate Faculty Member of Dialysis and renal Transplantation section and Medical Board Member of End-Stage Renal Disease Network (Heartland Kidney Network) - a non-profit corporation under contract with CMS to oversee the End Stage Renal Disease Program in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Iowa. His reaearch interests include Acidosis, Amyloidosis, Calcium Metabolism Disorders, Congenital Cystic Kidney Disease, Diabetes With Renal Manifestations etc

Dr. Jeffrey Burke Halldorson is working as an Associate Professor in Surgery Department at UC San Diego Health. Prior to joining the transplant team at UC San Diego Health, Dr. Halldorson was Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Washington. He is a member of the American Society of Transplant Surgery, the American Society of Transplantation, the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, and the American Medical Association. He received his medical degree from University of Michigan Medical School. He completed a general surgery Residency at the University of Minnesota. During his residency, he spent four years of post-doctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania studying molecular biology and gene therapy. After finishing surgical residency, Dr. Halldorson completed a two-year fellowship in multi-organ transplantation at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Halldorson is board-certified in general surgery. Dr. Halldorson is a board-certified transplant and hepatobiliary surgeon who specializes in all aspects of liver, kidney and pancreas transplantation, as well as liver and hepatobiliary surgery and general surgery as applied to the transplant patient.

Dr. Vincent G. Bird is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Urology, Chief of the Division of Minimally Invasive Surgery, the endourology and minimally invasive surgery fellowship program director and associate program director of the residency program in the Department of Urology at the University of Florida College of Medicine, He joined the University of Florida Department of Urology after eight years at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Department of Urology where he was an Associate Professor of Clinical Urology. Dr. Bird is a board certified urologist who completed his fellowship training in laparoscopy and endourology at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. At the conclusion of his fellowship, Dr. Bird was given a clinical science award by the Endourological Society for research relating to patterns of treatment for urinary stone disease. Dr. Bird received his undergraduate education at Boston University, and attended medical school at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, where he received his medical degree with distinction in research and was also awarded for his work involving cellular processes related to cancer and inflammation. Dr. Bird then completed his general surgical and urological training at the University of Miami. Currently, his clinical practice focuses on renal surgery for urinary stone disease, renal obstruction, and renal cancer, while his clinical and basic science research focus is on the treatment of a variety of renal conditions. Dr. Bird has published a number of clinical studies relating to renal cancer and its treatment by means of minimally invasive procedures. He also has publications and interests relating to urologic imaging. He has contributed publications on treatment of urinary stone disease with newly developed technologies. Dr. Bird has an interest in newly developing imaging technologies and how these technologies and related techniques can be used to diagnose cancer in new noninvasive ways. Dr. Bird is also an active member of the American Urological Association/Southeastern Section of the American Urological Association, Endourological Society, and past president of the Florida Urological Society. Dr. Bird has held a number of posts within the Florida Urologic Society, serving two terms as scientific director as well as secretary treasurer. He is section editor for the Laparoscopy and Endourology section of Current Urology Reports and serves as a reviewer for the Journal of Urology, Urology, Surgical Laparoscopy, Endoscopy & Percutaneous Techniques, Lasers in Medicine, and the Journal of Endourology. Dr. Bird has been recognized by Top Doctors in America.

Dr. Saeid Mordechai Nosrati is Associate Professor of Medicine at Keck-USC School of Medicine in Los Angeles, CA and Medical Director of the CKD program and the Renal, Hypertension and Transplant Clinic at the LAC+USC. He attended medical school at the State University of New York in Brooklyn (1983-1987). After completing an internship and residency program at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine at Bronx, NY,(1987-2000), Dr. Nosrati was awarded a nephrology fellowship at Beth Israel Hospital/ Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. After completing his fellowship, Dr. Nosrati joined the Keck-USC School of Medicine in Los Angeles, CA in 1992 as an Assistant Professor of Medicine. Dr. Nosrati has also served as Medical Director of the Peritoneal Dialysis Program and Home Hemodialysis Program at the USC Dialysis Center and has been an attending physician at the CAPD Clinic, USC Outpatient Dialysis, Medicine Ward and Renal Ward at the LAC+USC Medical Center. Dr. Nosrati is actively involved in a number of bench research as well as clinical research in advancing kidney dialysis, liver dialysis and providing a support system for the MOF/MODS multisystem failures using advanced technologies. In addition he has been actively conducting major pharmaceutical sponsored phase II-IV clinical trials in hypertension, anemia, iron, secondary hyperparathyroidism etc.

Dr. Fiona McDonald is Associate Professor and Deputy Head of Department in charge of teaching in Department of Physiology at University of Otago, New Zealand. She obtained her BSc Honours degree in biochemistry from the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. She then carried out her D.Phil in developmental biology under the supervision of Professor John Heath at the University of Oxford, U K. Fiona’s postdoctoral training was undertaken with Professor Michael Welsh at the University of Iowa, USA. During her postdoc, Fiona cloned the human epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) genes and studied their interactions with other proteins. In 1996 Fiona was recruited to the School of Biological Sciences at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand as a lecturer in Cell and Developmental Biology. Here she spent five years developing her independent research interest in ENaC, and the ubiquitin pathway that regulates ENaC populations at the cell surface. Since 2001, Fiona has been in the Department of Physiology at the University of Otago continuing work on ENaC. Her laboratory discovered that proteins of the COMMD family regulate ENaC, and current work is focused on finding out how COMMD proteins alter ENaC cell surface populations, and their links to protein trafficking pathways. She also has collaborations on studying the role of ENaC in blood vessels. Dr. Fiona's research interests include Sodium channel, Ion channel, Protein trafficking, Kidney, Ion transport, Cell physiology, Cellular signaling.

Dr. Giovanni Conzo is currently an Associate Professor of Surgery and Consultant Surgeon at the VII Division of General Surgery and Endocrine Surgery - School of Medicine and Surgery, Second University of Naples. He led his research largely in the field of digestive pathology and endocrinology, as well as minimally invasive surgery. He has been involved in a number of national and international meetings either as a speaker or moderator and was also the promoter of countless conferences and training sessions in the field of endocrine and minimally invasive surgery.

Dr. Sanem (Guler) Cimen is currently an Associate Professor of General Surgery. Sanem Cimen is the founder of the Kidney Transplant program in Diskapi Research and Training Hospital, one of the biggest government hospitals in Turkey, Ankara. She also gives lectures in University of Health Sciences and International Transplant Network on Abdominal Procurement Surgery, Kidney transplantation and deceased donation. She finished her general surgery training in Turkey, and moved to North America to gain expertise on transplant surgeries on 2011. Between 2011 and 2012 she worked as a surgical fellow at The Cleveland Clinic. Afterwards, she spent 4 years at the Dalhousie University of Canada where she performed over 200 deceased donor kidney transplantations. Her research interest includes Kidney pancreas transplantation surgery, Multi-Organ transplant, Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, etc.

Dr. Ying-Yong Zhao is Professor in Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine at The School of Life Sciences in Northwest University, China. Dr. Zhao obtained his Ph.D., MD and Postdoc degree from Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine at The School of Life Sciences in Northwest University, China. He worked as Lecturer, Postdoc Supervisor and then as an Associate Professor in the same university. He received several awards including National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Nomination Award and New Century Excellent Talents in University from Ministry of Education of China, The Pharmaceutical Society of China Award for Young Scientists in 2012 (Sanofi Young biological drugs Award), The Pharmacological Society of China Award for Young Scientists in 2011 (Fifteenth SERVIER Youth Pharmacology Award) and The Ninth Youth S&T Awards of Shaanxi in 2012. Dr. Zhao's areas of expertise include structural elucidation of chemical components, phytochemical components analysis, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics and metabolomics from natural medicine. He also studies the oxidative stress, inflammation, and pro-fibrotic pathways of chronic kidney disease and tubulointerstitial diseases, molecular biology of kidney gene expression.

Dr. Zhangsuo Liu is professor, chief physician, doctoral supervisor, the national excellent scientific and technical worker, outstanding young and mid-aged expert of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, vice chairman of expert committee of kidney disease, capacity building and continuing education center, National Health and Family Planning Commission, the excellent expert of Henan province. Dr. Liu is also the national committee member of chinese society of nephrology, vice president of chinese nephrologist association, vice chairman of chinese society of medical information, chairman of blood purification branch of Henan medical association, director of the kidney disease prevention and control center of Henan province, superintendent of the kidney disease institute of zhengzhou university, deputy director of the first affiliated hospital of Zhengzhou university. He took charge of more than forty research projects, presided four Programs of National Natural Science Foundation of China, presided one project of the National Institute of Hospital Administration, National Health and Family Planning Commission, and one project of the office of science and technology of Henan province,participate in one emphasis research and development plan of the national key program, the Thirteenth Five-year Plan, two National 973 Programs and two key projects of the Twelfth Five-year Plan. And the held chief or deputy editor of ten books, participated in two teaching material of graduate and undergraduate course, participate in ten national clinical expert consensus of kidney disease, published more than four hundred papers, and forty-two SCI articles.