Distinguished educators and preeminent researchers are among the leaders to be honored at ASN Kidney Week 2014Highlights• Five leaders in the kidney health community are being acknowledged by the American Society of Nephrology (ASN), the world’s largest organization of kidney disease specialists.• The award winners will be honored at ASN Kidney Week 2014, the world’s premier nephrology meeting, where more than 13,000 kidney health professionals from around the world will gather in Philadelphia, PA on November 11–16.
ASN represents nearly 15,000 professionals dedicated to leading the fight against kidney disease, the 8th leading cause of death in the U.S.
Newswise — Philadelphia, PA (November 10, 2014) — Five leaders in the fight against kidney disease will be honored by the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) during the society’s annual meeting, ASN Kidney Week 2014, on November 11–16 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA. Each recipient has advanced the fight against kidney disease, which affects more than 20 million Americans.
Robert G. Narins Award to be Presented to Stuart L. Linas Stuart L. Linas, MD, FASN, Rocky Mountain Professor of Renal Research at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, will receive the Robert G. Narins Award during the plenary session on Saturday, November 15. An esteemed educator, Dr. Linas has won numerous teaching accolades over the past two decades. He currently directs the medical school’s renal fellowship program, chairs its curriculum steering committee, heads the hypertension section within the division of renal diseases, and is chief of nephrology at Denver Health Medical Center.
Dr. Linas is treasurer of the American Board of Internal Medicine, is the former president of the Association of Specialty Professors, and has served on the board of directors of the Alliance of Academic Internal Medicine. He has been closely involved with ASN, serving on the Board of Advisors and chairing the Training Program Directors Executive Committee, the Hypertension Advisory Group, and the Education Committee. Dr. Linas has authored numerous articles and book chapters and has served as an editorial board member for many nephrology journals, including CJASN. The Robert G. Narins Award honors individuals who have made substantial and meritorious contributions in education and teaching.
Josephine P. Briggs to Receive John P. Peters AwardASN will present the John P. Peters Award to Josephine P. Briggs, MD—director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)—during the plenary session on Saturday, November 15. An accomplished researcher and physician, her translational research has brought a fuller understanding of the usefulness and safety of complementary and integrative health practices. Dr. Briggs has studied the renin-angiotensin system, diabetic nephropathy, circadian regulation of blood pressure, and the effect of antioxidants in kidney disease. To date, she has published more than 175 research articles, book chapters, and scholarly papers.
In addition to professorships in nephrology, internal medicine, and physiology, Dr. Briggs has held numerous leadership positions, including associate chair for research in the department of internal medicine at the University of Michigan. She has served on the editorial boards of several journals and was the past director of the Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases where she co-chaired an NIH Roadmap Committee on Translational Core Resources. Dr. Briggs served as senior scientific officer at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute before assuming her current NIH position.
The John P. Peters Award Recognizes individuals who have made substantial research contributions to the discipline of nephrology and have sustained achievements in one or more domains of academic medicine including clinical care, education, and leadership.
Belding H. Scribner Award to be Presented to Allan J. Collins Allan J. Collins, MD, will be honored with the Belding H. Scribner Award for his career-long contributions to the practice of nephrology during the plenary session on Saturday, November 15. The award recognizes his dedication to outstanding patient care, research, and service to professional organizations. The director of the Chronic Disease Research Group of the Minneapolis Medical Research Foundation, he is also a professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine and Hennepin County Medical Center.
Dr. Collins’ clinical research focuses on acute and chronic care of end stage renal disease patients and clinical studies of dialysis techniques and outcomes. He has held several leadership roles at the National Kidney Foundation (NKF), serving as president for 3 years, as well as on the NKF scientific advisory board and with the Kidney Dialysis Outcomes Quality Initiative. He also served on the International Society of Nephrology’s Commission for the Global Advancement of Nephrology Committee and helped the Chronic Disease Research Group expand beyond kidney disease to include other chronic conditions.
The Belding H. Scribner Award is presented annually to one or more individuals who have made outstanding contributions that have a direct impact on the care of patients with renal disorders or have substantially changed the clinical practice of nephrology.
Friedhelm Hildebrandt to Receive Homer W. Smith AwardAcclaimed researcher Friedhelm Hildebrandt, MD, will receive the Homer W. Smith Award during the plenary session on Friday, November 14, and deliver a lecture titled Single-Gene Defects Elucidate Mechanisms of CKD. He is the Warren E. Grupe Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, chief of the division of nephrology at Boston Children’s Hospital, and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His research focuses on the identification and functional characterization of recessive single-gene causes of kidney disease in children, and his group has identified more than 50 novel causative genes for CKD and delineated the related pathogenesis.
Dr. Hildebrandt’s lab studies the function of newly identified disease genes in models of mice and zebrafish, as well as in cell-based systems. His work contributed to the early development of efficient methods for gene identification by combining homozygosity mapping with total human exome resequencing. His group recently discovered that DNA damage repair plays a role in the pathogenesis of ciliopathies. His lab has also demonstrated that in a very high percentage of childhood chronic kidney disease, a single gene may be identified using high-throughput sequencing techniques.
The Homer Smith Award is presented annually to an individual who has made outstanding contributions which fundamentally affect the science of nephrology, broadly defined, but not limited to, the pathobiology, cellular and molecular mechanisms, and genetic influences on the functions and diseases of the kidney.
ASN-AHA Young Investigator Award to Be Presented to Myles Wolf The ASN-AHA Young Investigator Award will be presented to Myles Wolf, MD, MMSc, for his groundbreaking research on mineral metabolism during the plenary session on Sunday, November 16, and will deliver a lecture titles Mineral (Mal)Adaptation to Kidney Disease. He is the Margaret Gray Morton Professor of Medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, the director of the physician-scientist training program, and the founding director of the Center for Translational Metabolism and Health.
The focus of Dr. Wolf’s research is disordered mineral metabolism across the spectrum of chronic kidney disease, including dialysis, kidney transplantation, and earlier stages. His primary contributions have been in the area of hormonal regulation of phosphate homeostasis. He helped to characterize the physiological role of fibroblast growth factor 23 in health and in chronic kidney disease, and the impact of elevated levels on adverse clinical outcomes.
The Young Investigator Award is presented annually to an individual with an outstanding record of achievement and creativity in basic or patient-oriented research related to the functions and diseases of the kidney.
ASN Kidney Week 2014, the largest nephrology meeting of its kind, will provide a forum for more than 13,000 professionals to discuss the latest findings in kidney health research and engage in educational sessions related to advances in the care of patients with kidney and related disorders. ASN Kidney Week 2014 will take place November 11–16, 2014, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA. ASN does not offer medical advice. All content in ASN publications is for informational purposes only, and is not intended to cover all possible uses, directions, precautions, drug interactions, or adverse effects. This content should not be used during a medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. Please consult your doctor or other qualified health care provider if you have any questions about a medical condition, or before taking any drug, changing your diet or commencing or discontinuing any course of treatment. Do not ignore or delay obtaining professional medical advice because of information accessed through ASN. Call 911 or your doctor for all medical emergencies.
Founded in 1966, and with nearly 15,000 members, the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) leads the fight against kidney disease by educating health professionals, sharing new knowledge, advancing research, and advocating the highest quality care for patients.# # #
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