Introducing the ISN@Work Gallery
Professor Helal: A Decade of Professional Advancement through ISN Initiatives
Prof. Helal’s professional journey is one of many to be showcased on the ISN@Work Gallery launching at WCN’21.
This gallery will highlight several ISN members whose work and professional development have benefited from ISN granting programs, as well as those who tirelessly advocate to raise awareness of kidney diseases or contribute to ISN research initiatives. The collective successes of recently graduated ISN Sister Centers and other ISN Programs and initiatives will also feature in the gallery.
These accounts are just a small sample of all the remarkable individuals and organizations the ISN has worked with over the years, helping to fulfill our mission, “Advancing Kidney Health Worldwide. Together.”
Prof. Imed Helal was awarded an ISN Fellowship in 2010, training in clinical research focusing on Adult Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD) under mentorship from Prof. Robert Shrier at the University of Colorado Denver in the USA.
During his two-year fellowship, Prof. Helal published six manuscripts and a book chapter. He comments, “My review « glomerular hyperfiltration: definitions, mechanisms, and clinical implications » is one of the most cited treatises on hyperfiltration in the field of nephrology.”
At the 2011 World Congress of Nephrology in Vancouver, Canada, Prof. Helal received first prize in the ISN Fellowship Awards. In 2014, he completed the online ISN-ANIO Clinical Nephropathology Certificate Program on renal pathology.
On his return home to Tunisia in 2012, he became an associate professor of nephrology at the School of medicine in Tunis. He served as general secretary and chair of the scientific committee in the Tunisian society of Nephrology, organizing the 5th Maghrebian Congress of Nephrology in Djerba, Tunisia. Through the ISN Educational Ambassadors (EA) Program, he invited his mentor, professor Schrier, to present several lectures during the congress.
Prof. Helal is currently an active member of the research laboratory of kidney disease at Charles Nicolle Hospital, Tunisia, developing and writing several research protocols and mentoring young renal fellows.
Prof. Helal states, “I am so grateful to the ISN and my mentor Professor Robert Schrier. Words do not express how sad we are from the recent loss of Professor Schrier. He will be remembered for a long time.”
