YNP Mentorship Programme

Yasar Caliskan is graduated from Istanbul University Cerrahpasa School of Medicine. He completed his Internal Medicine residency and Nephrology fellowship at the Istanbul School of Medicine. After completing his Nephrology fellowship, he started working as a Transplant Nephrologist at the same institution. His passion to pursue a professional career in an academic Nephrology program in US brought him to Saint Louis University (SLU) where he completed another Nephrology fellowship. In 2012, he worked as postdoc research scientist at Columbia University focusing on genetic determinants of kidney allograft rejection and also genetics of IgAN and membranous nephropathy. His work is grounded in novel integration and application of collaborative precision medicine program in nephrology and transplantation practice using novel genetic tools and biomarkers.

Clinical interests and expertise: Transplantation, Inherited Kidney Diseases, Primary Glomerular Diseases.

Research interests and expertise: Genetics, Complement system, Ischemic Reperfusion Injury and Transplantation Outcomes.

Career level of mentee preferred: Medical student / Resident trainee/ Fellow trainee /Post-doctoral fellow /Non MD students/ Trainees/ Fellows.

Ana Farinha studied medicine at the Medical Faculty in Coimbra and completed postgraduate training in Nephrology, Geriatrics and Palliative Care. She works as a consultant nephrologist with competence in geriatrics and palliative care to follow elderly patients with CKD. She works with generl practitioners to prevent CKD. She is the founder of Supportive and Conservative Care in Portugal. She is a board member of the Portuguese Society of Nephrology (SPN) and a board member of the Anemia Working Group Portugal. She is an editorial board member of the SPN journal and reviewer for several journals. She is the author or co-author of numerous articles and book chapters. She has been clinical investigator and/or PI in several clinical trials related to progression of CKD, anemia or diabetic nephropathy. She has participated in a couple of COST networking actions: PROGRAMMING (geriatric field) and CONNECT (renal insufficiency and cognitive disfunction).

Clinical interests and expertise: Clinical Nephrology, CKD, Geriatrics, Pre-dialysis management, Palliative Care, Anemia.

Research interests and expertise: Clinical research in elderly CKD management, Prevention in CKD.

Career level of mentee preferred: Resident trainee/ Fellow trainee / Medical student / Junior faculty.

Rebecca Herzog is a translational researcher aiming to link omics-driven basic science and patient-centred clinical research in peritoneal dialysis. She received her PhD at the Medical University of Vienna in 2017 and her Venia Docendi in 2023. As research fellow of the Paediatric Nephrology, in collaboration with a start-up company, she and her colleagues developed a novel PD-fluid from experimental discovery to clinical application. As Senior PostDoc she investigates molecular interventions to modulate pathomechanism in the peritoneum. She discovered the role of a specific PTM in PD, developed an immunecompetence assay, and revealed the PD effluent proteome. She received 26 inter/national awards (additionally 10 to directly supervised students), an ERA research fellowship, and in 2019 the Stanley Sheldon Young Investigator Award. She was a PI in IMPROVE-PD, an EU-H2020 project.

Clinical interests and expertise: Peritoneal dialysis.

Research interests and expertise: Basic and translational research in experimental nephrology and omics techniques (proteomics, metabolomics).

Career level of mentee preferred: Medical student / Resident trainee.

Ivica Horvatić graduated from Medical School Zagreb, University of Zagreb. He is a specialist in internal medicine and in Nephrology. He finished his PhD in 2011 at University of Zagreb. He currently works as a Head of the Department of Nephrology and Dialysis of the University Hospital Dubrava in Zagreb, Croatia treating chronic kidney disease, acute kidney injury and resistant arterial hypertension. His narrow specialty and interest are biopsy proven renal disease as well as chronic kidney disease. He has a vast experience in teaching at the Medical School and also School of Pharmacy and biochemistry of the University of Zagreb. He has participated in 5 international multicentric phase 3 clinical trials as sub-investigator and in 1 study as a Principal Investigator. In addition, he has been involved as a researcher in 2 scientific projects of Croatian Ministry of education and science and Croatian science foundation.

Clinical interests and expertise: Glomerular disease, Tubulointerstitial disease, Vasculitis, Hypertension, Chronic kidney disease.

Research interests and expertise: Prognostication in chronic kidney disease, Validation of Glomerular disease and Chronic kidney disease scores.

Career level of mentee preferred: Medical student / Resident trainee / Fellow trainee / Non MD students/ Trainees / Fellows.

Andreas Kronbichler, M.D., Ph.D., is a consultant nephrologist and an assistant professor of nephrology at the Medical University of Innsbruck. He is an expert in the management of glomerular diseases and has been recognized by the German Society of Nephrology (Nils-Alwall award 2023) and the ERA (Eberhard Ritz award 2024) for his contributions to the field of ANCA-associated vasculitis. He received training in three different countries, Austria, Germany and the United Kingdom. Andreas Kronbichler serves as an academic editor for Nephrol Dial Transplant and is an associated editor of the journal Glom Dis.

Clinical interests and expertise: Glomerulonephritis, Immunology.

Research interests and expertise: Glomerulonephritis.

Career level of mentee preferred: Medical student, Resident trainee, Fellow trainee, Postdoctoral fellow.

Luísa Lobato is a senior nephrologist at Centro Hospitalar Universitário de Santo António in Porto, and a full invited professor at the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (ICBAS) of the University of Porto. She is Director of the Department of Nephrology and a member of the Coordination Committee of the Erasmus+ Programme at ICBAS.

She graduated in Medicine at ICBAS and completed her Nephrology residency and fellowship at the Centro Hospitalar Universitário de Santo António. After her PhD, she has dedicated her research to systemic amyloidosis, especially focusing on ATTR (transthyretin) and AFib (fibrinogen) amyloidosis. Her work in the field of amyloid comprises histopathology, real life effects of targeted therapies, dialysis and the treatment of ATTR cardiorenal syndrome. She also converged skills in clinical nephrology, genetics and kidney and kidney-liver transplantation. She is an ERKNet senior clinician expert and also headed the Hospital Clinical Trials Unit for ten years.
In addition, she is the President of the Scientific Committee of the Portuguese Society of Nephrology (SPN), the vice coordinator of the Unit for Multidisciplinary Research in Biomedicine and researcher at the Laboratory for Integrative and Translational Research in Population Health, University of Porto.

Clinical interests and expertise: Clinical Nephrology, Systemic Amyloidosis, Inherited Kidney Diseases, CKD, clinical trials.

Research interests and expertise: Hereditary and Wild-Type ATTR Amyloidosis, Genetic Epidemiology, Transplantation.

Career level of mentee preferred: Resident trainee/ Fellow trainee/ Junior faculty.

Francesco Locatelli is Past President of European Renal Association – European Dialysis and Transplant Association (ERA-EDTA), International Society of Blood Purification (ISBP) and of the Italian Society of Nephrology (SIN). He also served as chairman of the board of European Best Practice Guidelines (EBPG) and on the board of National Kidney Foundation, Dialysis Outcome Quality Improvement, NKFDOQITM, and on the executive board of directors of Global Guidelines and Kidney Disease Improvement Outcome KDIGO.

Clinical interests and expertise: Anemia, Hemodialysis, Glomerulonephrithis, CKD.

Research interests and expertise: Mineral Metabolism, Anemia,CKD, Hemodialysis.

Career level of mentee preferred: Junior faculty.

President of the Italian Society of Nephrology (2019-2022). Past Full professor of Nephrology at the Università Statale di Medicina , Milan Italy. Past Director of the Division of Nephrology, Dialysis and Renal Transplant (Policlinico Milan). Director of the postgraduate School of specialization in Nephrology (University of Milan , Milan Italy, 2017-2020). President of the ERA Congress (Milan 2023). Scientific President of the national Congress of the Italian Society of Nephrology (Rome 2006). Secretary of the World Nephrology Congress (Milan 2009). 403 indexed publications (HI 52 Scopus). Editorial bord in (NDT, JN, Nutrients, Frontiers in Nephrology, Blood Purification), referee for more than 30 international journals (KI, AJT, NDT, AJKD, CJASN, Nature Nephrology, Curr Op Drug Metab Endocrinology, etc.).

Clinical interests and expertise: Renal Transplantation, Clinical Nephrology, Mineral Metabolism.

Research interests and expertise: Mineral and Electrolyte Metabolism.

Career level of mentee preferred: Medical student / Resident trainee / Post-doctoral fellow / Junior faculty.

Miklos Zsolt Molnar is a Professor of Medicine and the Medical Director of the Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation Programs and Living Donor Transplantation Program at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. He obtained his M.D. and Ph.D. from Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary. He completed his residency and fellowship in Europe before immigrating to the United States in 2010. He completed residency in Internal Medicine and received additional specialized training and faculty experience as a transplant nephrologist at University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, after he completed his North American nephrology fellowship training at University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His primary clinical interests involve all aspects of kidney transplantation, while his research focuses on outcomes in kidney transplant recipients. He is active in clinical research and frequently gives talks in national and international meetings. He has contributed as a primary, senior, or co-author to more than 300 articles in the fields of nephrology and transplant medicine and serves on the editorial boards of several journals.

Clinical interests and expertise: Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation.

Research interests and expertise: Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation.

Career level of mentee preferred: Fellow trainee, Postdoctoral fellow, Junior faculty.

Tiago Assis Pereira studied Medicine at the Faculdade de Medicina de Lisboa, Portugal. In 2011, he started a 5-year fellowship at Hospital Santa Cruz, Lisbon. During his fellowship, he completed a rotation in vascular access ultrasound at Parc Tauli Hospital, Sabadell. From 2016 to nowadays, he has been a consultant nephrologist at the Nephrology Department of Centro Hospitalar Universitario de Lisboa Central/NOVA Medical School, Lisbon. He started an inpatient and outpatient department consultation for ultrasound evaluation of patients proposed for vascular access creation and evaluation. Over the years, Tiago has created a specific vascular access training programme and has conducted several workshops and hands-on courses focusing on vascular access care and ultrasound skills. Several residents from different Portuguese and international backgrounds have participated in this programme and, in addition to clinical improvement, have been able to design and carry out research and present abstracts at national and international congresses.

In addition to vascular access care, Dr Pereira works in the nephrology inpatient department and outpatient clinic, with clinical interest mainly in the interaction between nephrology and primary care and the progression of chronic kidney disease.

Tiago Pereira is a teaching assistant in the Nephrology clinical rotation at the NOVA Medical School (Lisbon) and has been the principal investigator in clinical trials related to CKD progression.

Clinical interests and expertise: Vascular access ultrasound, hemodialysis, clinical nephrology and interaction between Nephrology and primary care.

Research interests and expertise: Vascular access ultrasound.

Career level of mentee preferred: Resident trainee / Fellow trainee.

Priyamvada PS, MD, DM has been working as a Professor of Nephrology at Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Puducherry, India. She received her subspecialty degree in Nephrology from the University of Calicut, India in 2009. Currently, she is the faculty in charge of the glomerular disease clinic and critical care nephrology services offered by JIPMER. She is an editorial board member of BMC Nephrology and the Indian Journal of Kidney Diseases.

Clinical interests and expertise: Glomerular Diseases, Acute Kidney Injury, Critical care Nephrology.

Research interests and expertise: Acute Kidney Injury to Chronic kidney disease transition, Chronic Kidney disease, Nutrition in early Chronic Kidney Disease, Clinical trial designs & Research Methodology.

Career level of mentee preferred: Medical student /Resident trainee/Fellow trainee

Luis F. Quintana is the Head of the Clinical Nephrology Section in the Nephrology and Renal Transplantation Department at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona. This section is a member of the European Rare Kidney Disease Reference Network and is endorsed by the national health system as a Reference Center for Complex Glomerular Diseases (CSUR). He is Full Professor of the Department of Medicine at the University of Barcelona, where he coordinates the subject of kidney diseases in the Master in Autoimmune diseases. He is also the coordinator of the Nephropathology Committee of the Hospital Clinic. He has also given more than 100 invited lectures and published more than 100 scientific articles. Dr. Quintana has extensive experience in research projects with competitive funding as principal investigator of La Marató Foundation projects, European projects such as 3TR (Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) European Union) and others funded by the Carlos III Health Institute. Currently his group has obtained funding to develop the project: Identifying the map of progression to chronic kidney disease in glomerular pathology during the period 2024-2026.

Clinical interests and expertise: Glomerular diseases, Autoimmunity, Onconephrology.

Research interests and expertise: Biomarkers and Histological subgrouping.

Career level of mentee preferred: Medical student / Resident trainee/ Fellow trainne/ Post-doctoral fellow / Junior faculty.

Turgay Saritas studied medicine at the Charité University Berlin. In 2012, he joined the Division of Nephrology at the University Hospital RWTH Aachen, Germany, where he is working as a scientist, consultant nephrologist, intensive care specialist and educator. His particular interest in renal sodium & potassium handling, tubule remodelling, and AKI-CKD transition developed during research stays at Charité Berlin, University Aachen, and Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, USA. His own team of researchers within the lab of Prof. Kramann is currently aiming to target the progression of AKI into CKD and reno-cardiac syndrome. Further, as German CKD study investigator he is also involved in clinical studies. His work has been awarded with several prestigious prizes of the ERA, Germany Society of Nephrology and others, and he has been supported by several foundations including the German Research Foundation. He is a board member of the European Renal Acute Kidney Injury ERAKI working group.

Clinical interests and expertise: AKI, CKD, Intensive Care Medicine, Tubulopathies.

Research interests and expertise: Tubule Physiology and Pathology, AKI-CKD Transition, Tubule Remodelling, Salt Handling.

Career level of mentee preferred: Medical student /Resident trainee/Fellow trainee /Post-doctoral fellow /Junior faculty.

María José Soler is Chief of the Clinical Nephrology and Dialysis Unit at the Vall d´Hebron Hospital and head of projects of research focused on both clinical and experimental diabetic nephropathy, onconephrology and glomerular diseases. She specialised in Clinical Nephrology at the Hospital del Mar (Autonomous University of Barcelona) and completed a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Northwestern University in Chicago IL (2005-2006). In 2007 she successfully defended her PhD thesis with an extraordinary award. She has collaborated with different research groups both nationally and internationally. She has been consecutively funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III for more than 15 years and has presented her work at national and international congresses. She has participated in the creation of the European Clinical Practice Guidelines for Diabetic Nephropathy. She has been part of the more known international and national (SCN, SEN) scientific Nephrology societies (ASN, ERA-EDTA, EDNSG, EFSD). She is currently Principal Investigator within the RICORS2040 (KIDNEY DISEASE) network (RD21/0005/0016). She was an elected member of the ERA-EDTA (European Renal Association-European Transplant and Dialysis Association) Council, former EDTA-flash Editor-in-Chief, former member of the ERA-EDTA ENP Committee and former member of the ERA-EDTA Press Validation Committee (2018-2020). Chair of the ERA-EDTA Abstract Validation Committee (February 2019-). She was Editor-in-Chief of the Clinical Kidney Journal (2022). She is currently Co-Chair of the ISN Western Europe Regional Board. She is also the Research Lab group Leader at Vall d´Hebron Research Institute (VHIR).

Clinical interests and expertise: Diabetes and CKD, Glomerulonephritis, chronic kidney disease, acute kidney disease.

Research interests and expertise: Diabetes and CKD, Glomerulonephritis, Renin angiotensin system.

Career level of mentee preferred: Resident trainee/ Fellow trainee/ Post-doctoral fellow / Junior faculty.

Goce Spasovski is postgraduated in nephrology at the University of Antwerp, Katowice and “Laiko” University Hospital in Athens through COMGAN project. He is a PhD at the Universities of Skopje and Antwerp. He was clinical investigator and/or PI in more than 20 clinical trials related to progression of CKD, anaemia, CKD-MBD and bone biopsy – based studies, immunotolerance in kidney transplant recipients, and participant in a couple of COST networking actions and FP programs. He had also participated actively in the ERBP Committee and DESCaRTES group. He is subject editor of NDT 2017 – ongoing, and serves as a member of the editorial board of many other European and world journals.

Clinical & Research interests and expertise: CKD-MBD, Kidney Transplantation, CKD Progression.

Career level of mentee preferred: Medical student /Resident trainee/Fellow trainee.

Serhan Tuglular is graduated from University Istanbul School of Medicine in 1986. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine in 1996 and her Nephrology Fellowship in 2000 at Marmara University School of Medicine in Istanbul, Turkey. From 1986-1988 she completed a compulsory governmental medical service which is a regulation in Turkey. During her fellowship in Nephrology, she was awarded ISN scholarship and worked at CHU St Etienne as a research fellow with the late M. Francois Berthoux. Since Turkey is one of the ‘earthquake countries’, following the Marmara earthquake in 1999 a Renal Disaster Task Force was started by the Turkish Society of Nephrology, she has been chairing the Task Force since 2018. She was an ordinary Council Member for ERA for the term 2020-2024. She chaired the Ukraine Renal Disaster Task Force from 2022 to 2024. Currently, she is chair-elect for ISN’s RDPWG and has been appointed to serve as the Chair of Scientific Committee for ERA Congress 2026.

Clinical interests and expertise: Renal Transplantation, Vasculitis-Renal involvement
SLE, Rheumatologic Disease with kidney involvement.

Research interests and expertise: Renal Transplantation, SLE, ANCA Associated Vasculitis.

Career level of mentee preferred: Medical student/ Fellow trainee.

Andrzej Wiecek graduated from the Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland in 1980. From 1985 to 1986 he held scientific scholarships in nephrology at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.

Since 2000, Prof. Wiecek is the Head of the Chair and Department of Nephrology, Transplantation and Internal Medicine at Medical University of Silesia in Katowice.

He obtained the title Full Professor in Nephrology and Internal Medicine in 1996. During recent years Prof. Wiecek has served as President and Council member of several prestigious Societies and organizations, including European Renal Association.

Additionally, Prof. Wiecek is a Distinguished Fellow of the ERA (FERA, 2011) and Fellow of the American Society of Nephrology (FASN, 2018).

Clinical interests and expertise: Clinical Nephrology, Hypertension, Cardiovascular complication in CKD and transplanted patients (kidney, liver) patients.

Research interests and expertise: Pathogenesis and treatment of primary and secondary forms of hypertension, Hormonal abnormalities in CKD and kidney transplant patients.

Career level of mentee preferred: Resident trainee / Fellow trainee.