Executive Committee

Professor Agnes Borge Fogo completed her medical and pathology training at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA. Her main research interests are focused on progression of chronic kidney disease and crosstalk between tubules and glomeruli, funded by the NIH and other sources.

Dr. Tonelli graduated from medical school at the University of Western Ontario and did postdoctoral training at Dalhousie University, the Harvard School of Public Health, and Imperial College London. He is Senior Associate Dean of the medical school (Clinical Research) and Associate Vice President (Health Research) at the University of Calgary.

Dr. Tonelli’s research aims to improve the care of people with chronic kidney disease and other noncommunicable diseases. He has partnered with regional, provincial and national decision-making bodies to inform clinical practice and impact health policy in this area. He completed a volunteership at the World Health Organization in 2013-2014, focusing on treatment of noncommunicable diseases following natural disasters and civil conflict.

Dr. Tonelli is a co-lead for the Alberta-based Interdisciplinary Chronic Disease Collaboration. He is chair emeritus of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care, a past President of the Canadian Society of Nephrology, and a member of the Governing Council of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He established and is the inaugural Director of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for the Prevention and Control of Chronic Kidney Disease.

Dr. Tonelli was the recipient of the 2013 United States National Kidney Foundation Medal for Distinguished Service and the Kidney Foundation of Canada’s 2013 Medal for Research Excellence for changing nephrology practice in Canada and beyond. He is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and has been named a “Highly Cited” researcher every year since 2015 by Thomson-Reuters Web of Science.

Masaomi Nangaku was an executive councilor of the ISN (2015-2019). He was the president of the Asian Pacific Society of Nephrology and is Dean of the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine. He is President of the Japanese Society of Nephrology and President of the Japanese Society of Internal Medicine.

His scientific achievements covered both basic studies (oxygen biology) and clinical trials (anemia in CKD and diabetic kidney disease), publishing 500 original articles/ 100 reviews articles with the total citations of 34,100 and the H-index of 95. He also gave 160 invited talks at international meetings. He got numerous awards including the Oshima Award and the Bälz Award.

He also served as a member of the program committee of many scientific meetings including those of the World Congress of Nephrology (2007, 2009, 2011, 2015, 2017), ISN NEXUS-fibrosis Geneva 2010, Kidney Week of the ASN (2009, 2016), and the Asian Pacific Congress of Nephrology. He served as chair of Regional Steering Committee of ISN NEXUS-vascular damage Kyoto 2010, chair of the Scientific Program Committee of APCN 2016, chair of Steering Committee of ISN-Frontiers Tokyo 2018, and chair of Scientific Program Committee of WCN in 2019. In addition, he served as a co-organizer of the first Keystone Symposia focusing on nephrology “Unraveling the Secrets of Kidney Disease” in 2019. He has also contributed to education and advocacy. He served as an associate editor of Kidney International for two terms. He played a major role in “Breakthrough Discoveries” and “Milestones in Nephrology” projects to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the ISN.

As chair of the CME committee of the APSN, he established CME courses for young nephrologists in LMIC in Asian Pacific region. These CME courses turned out to be successful, and many societies were holding the CME courses in the Asia Pacific region until the pandemic of COVID-19. As COVID-19 had a huge effect on these activities, he tried to find a way to provide good education and communication with LMIC that had only poor internet access. He is also serving as a chair of the “Moonshot Research and Development Program” of telemedicine, which sets ambitious goals and promotes challenging R&D projects with the aim of resolving difficult societal issues while bringing together the wisdom of researchers from all over the world.

Liz Lightstone is Professor of Renal Medicine at the Centre for Inflammatory Disease, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, and Consultant Nephrologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust Renal and Transplant
Centre.

After a PhD/postdoc in Immunology, and with a longstanding interest in health inequalities facing minority groups with CKD, her research now focuses on Lupus Nephritis (LN) and pregnancy in women with CKD. She pioneered steroid minimizing regimens for LN, influenced global LN trials design, developed novel approaches to assess adherence, identified biomarkers of pre-eclampsia in women with CKD and founded the UK CKD and Pregnancy
national registry. Committed to ensuring the patient voice is heard, she is global co-chair of the SONG-GD initiative which aims to define core outcomes critical to patients and healthcare professionals. She has published extensively, contributed to NICE guidance in LN and pregnancy and co-authored the Renal Association Guideline on Renal Disease and Pregnancy.

She jointly manages a renal/rheumatology lupus clinic following >400 LN patients and established and runs renal obstetric and pre-pregnancy counselling clinics; her clinical advice is sought worldwide. She has promoted academic training in nephrology through mentorship and supervision, and built capacity in EU and beyond by training visiting fellows who have gone on to establish LN and Obstetric Renal Clinics back home.

Other Contributions to National and International Kidney endeavours – Co-Chair UKKRC Glomerulonephritis Clinical Study Group; previously on Renal Association Executive & recently chaired RA group providing evidence-based advice on shielding from COVID-19 for patients with autoimmune CKD. CI/PI on LN/C3GN RCTs. Advocate for women in nephrology and now elected Council member of Women in Nephrology. Service to ISN: regular contributions to WCN; 2018 ISN WKD: as Renal Association lead organized national conference on Pregnancy & Kidney Disease; advocated for and arranged open access for key articles on women’s health & kidney disease.

Rolando Claure-Del Granado received his medical degree from Universidad del Valle School of Medicine (Cochabamba, Bolivia) in 1999. His postgraduate training included a residency in Internal Medicine and a Fellowship in Nephrology at Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición “Salvador Zubirán” (U.N.A.M) in Mexico City, Mexico. He was a Research Fellow at the Division of Nephrology – Hypertension of the University of California San Diego, from 2009 to 2011. Following his fellowship he joined the faculty of Universidad Mayor de San Simon School of Medicine (Cochabamba, Bolivia); as a Professor of Medicine. He is a Clinical Research Investigator at the Biomedical Research Institute (IIBISMED).

He is the Head of the Division of Nephrology at Hospital Obrero No 2 – Caja Nacional de Salud (Cochabamba, Bolivia) where he has an ISN Sister Renal Center program. He has actively been involved in several activities, programs and initiatives inside ISN like the 0by25 and Kidney Care Network initiatives, the development of ISN COVID-19 resources site, the development of the ISN-ACT Clinical Trials Toolkit, etc. He is the past Chair of the ISN Young Nephrologists Committee and current member of it; he is also a member of the ISN Fellowship committee, an active member of the @ISNeducation Social Media team, and a member of the ISN Latin American Regional Board. He is also a member of the Acute Kidney Injury Committee of the Latin-American Society of Nephrology and Hypertension and past President of the Bolivian Society of Nephrology and Hypertension. Dr. Claure-Del Granado’s research interests include the epidemiology of AKI, extracorporeal therapies for AKI, study of biomarkers in AKI, mobile health, and the use of social media in education.

Dr. Claure-Del Granado has more than 70 publications between original articles, reviews, abstracts and book chapters. He has received several grants, awards and recognitions throughout his career like.

Dr. CAI Guang-Yan received his medical degree from Jilin University School of Medicine (Changchun, China) in 1996. He joined the faculty of the Division of Nephrology, Chinese PLA General Hospital since 1996. He was a Professor of Medicine in 2009 and Honorary Professor at the School of Medicine Nankai University in 2015.

He is the Head of the Division of Nephrology at Chinese PLA General Hospital since 2013. He is Vice Chair and a Principal Investigator at the State Key Laboratory of Kidney Diseases and the National Clinical Research Center for Kidney Diseases. He has actively been involved in several activities and programs in nephrology communities like the AKI Session Chairperson of APCN 2020, ISRNM Membership Committee Chairperson in 2021, World Kidney Day activities etc. He is the President-elect of the Chinese Society of Nephrology and Vice President of the Chinese Nephrologists Association. His research interests include kidney diseases in elderly, hypertension in CKD, biomarkers of kidney diseases, and stem cell therapy in AKI.

Dr. CAI Guang-Yan has more than 100 peer review publications of original articles and reviews as first or corresponding authors. He has received several research grants and National Award for Science and Technology Progress.

Prof. Vladimir Tesar, MD, PhD, MBA, FASN, FERA, born May 5, 1957,

Graduated form Charles University in Prague, Professor of Medicine and Head of Department of Nephrology, General University Hospital, Charles University, Prague (since 2003), 1999 – 2005 vice-dean for research and science, 1st School of Medicine, Charles University, Prague.

Member of ISN (since 1993), since 2017 vice-chair of CEE Regional Board and the Council of ISN

Member of the Council of ERA/EDTA (2011 – 2014), chair of the board of the Immunonephrology Working Group of ERA-EDTA (since 2015)

President of the Czech Society of Nephrology (1999 – 2004, 2010 – 2012 and 2016-2020)

Member of the editorial board of CJASN, Nephrology,Dialysis, Transplantation and Journal of Nephrology

Longterm interest in glomerular disease, inherited diseases of the kidney and cardiovascular complications of kidney disease, more than 400 original publications according to Pubmed, H-index 34

MBChB (Glasgow), MSc (Aberdeen), MD (Aberdeen), FRCP (London).

Having graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1993, Fergus went on to obtain a Masters in Health Services and Public Health Research and then an MD in the Cost-effectiveness of Dialysis in Europe from the University of Aberdeen. He became a Consultant Nephrologist in Bristol in 2005 and was Medical Director of the UK Renal Registry from 2013-2019.

Now based at the University of Bristol and North Bristol NHS Trust, his research interests include the epidemiology of kidney disease, particularly around equity of access to treatment, and using embedded qualitative research and routine healthcare data to improve the efficiency of clinical trials. He is chief investigator of two ongoing NIHR HTA-funded trials, Prepare for Kidney Care and the High-volume HDF vs High-flux HD Registry Trial.

He chairs the SharE-RR Steering Committee for ISN (www.theisn.org/advocacy/share-rr) and is a member of the ISN Executive Committee.

Professor Fatiu Abiola Arogundade; MBBS (Lagos), FMCP, ISN Fellow, FWACP, FRCP Edin, FRCP (London). He had his basic medical degree from the College of Medicine, University of Lagos and postgraduate training at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex, Ile-Ife. Professor Arogundade was promoted to the grade of Professor of Medicine and Nephrology at the Obafemi Awolowo University in October, 2011. He is also a Honorary Consultant Physician / Nephrologist to the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.

His research interests are in general nephrology and renal replacement therapies. He had studied aetiopathogenesis and epidemiology of CKD in Nigeria looking at contributions of HIV, Hydrocarbons and Sickle Cell Disease. He has also studied different aspects of CKD including challenges and prospects of CAPD and kidney transplantation in Nigeria. He is currently examining modalities for retarding progression of CKD in Sickle Cell Disease and genomics of kidney disease in Africa. He has about 100 publications including 7 chapters in books. He is a reviewer to several journals and the Editor of Journal of Clinical Sciences and editorial adviser to Tropical Journal of Nephrology. He attended almost all WCNs since Berlin 2003 and was a member of the organising committee of WCN 2015 held in Cape Town, South Africa. He has served in SRC, HD, YNC and African regional committees of ISN and he is currently a member of Educational Ambassadors committee and African Regional Board.

He served as the Vice-Dean, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, Obafemi Awolowo University between 2011 and 2013. He is the Chairman and Chief Examiner of the Faculty of Internal Medicine, National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, Past Secretary / Treasurer to African Association of Nephrology, President of Nigerian Association of Nephrology and President of Transplant Association of Nigeria. He has mentored about 35 postgraduate students. He is married with children and his hobbies include travelling and reading.

Charu Malik has over 15 years of experience in the non-profit sector, the majority of which have been with professional healthcare societies.

She comes to the ISN from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), where she was the Vice President for Education, Research, and Special Projects.

Prior to APIC, she was the Executive Director for the World Allergy Organization, a global federation of almost 100 national and regional societies. In this capacity, she led the conceptualization, development, and execution of several innovative international partnership ventures, including disease-specific multi-partner, multi-sponsor, and multi-year research and educational initiatives.