As we reach the final day of the 59th ERA Congress, we would like to thank everyone who has attended, presented or been involved in the organisation of a fantastic programme. To send off our time in Paris, we have a number of interesting sessions today to wrap us up, including:

We spoke with Marianne Verhaar, who will be presenting on Basic Science and Translational Nephrology, to see what people can look forward to during the session:

How did you choose your ‘Nephrology Pearls’ for this session?
It was extremely challenging to identify Nephrology Pearls from all of the fantastic research in basic and translational science from the past 12 months as well as this Congress – there is too much that I want to present.

As we only have 20 minutes to present, I have had to lift a small selection of what I have found most interesting to share with our community, but I hope that they will find it is fascinating and helpful as I do.

What is the ‘Nephrology Pearl’ you are most looking forward to sharing with delegates?
You will have to wait and see the session. I really hope everyone comes along to hear what I think is interesting as well as my colleagues Kitty Jager, Giovanni Gambaro and Andreas Kronbichler. Should be a great way to close this year’s scientific programme.

Today, the three young investigators who received ERA Awards during the Welcome Ceremony will have the opportunity to present their research topics to Congress in a Plenary Lecture chaired by ERA President Christoph Wanner (Germany) and Orsolya Cseprekál (Hungary), Vice-Chair of the YNP Board.

He developed his particular interest in renal sodium and potassium handling, tubule remodelling, and AKI-CKD transition during research stays at Charité Berlin, University of Aachen and the Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, USA.

Turgay’s work has been recognised with prestigious prizes from the Germany Society of Nephrology, among others, and he has been supported by several foundations including the German Research Foundation.

He serves as a reviewer for highly reputed journals and is an editorial board member for Kidney Blood Pressure Research. He is also active within several national and international societies, including ERA since 2013. As an ERA YNP member, he co-chaired the ERA AKI Course on the opening day of this year’s Congress.

water and acid-base homeostasis, as well as studies on experimental models and patients affected by rare kidney diseases.

 

He contributed to the discovery of new mechanisms of disease for both primary and lithium-induced nephrogenic diabetes insipidus and to the expansion of knowledge on the role of intercalated cells in both acid-base and sodium chloride transport. These studies are published in highly-ranked journals. At the Biogem Institute for molecular biology and genetics, he is responsible for the translational nephrology laboratory. 

 

Jennifer’s research interest is in the long-term risks associated with CKD, particularly cardiovascular disease and cancer, funded by the Chief Scientist Office, Scotland. She has an interest in the use of cystatin C to risk-stratify patients with CKD. In 2022, she won the Raine Award: a prestigious annual award by the UK Kidney Association to a junior investigator who has made a significant contribution to renal research.

Do you have a specific vision for the 60th Congress Programme?
Indeed, the ERA Congress in Milan in 2023 is going to be the 60th Congress and this itself highlights the long tradition of our Scientific Society. We should maintain and respect this long tradition but with a careful look at novelties of the near future. The key focus for Milan 2023 is ‘Research with a specific mission for Education, Governance and Equality’, where equality means each individual, or group of people, is given the same resources and opportunities.

Where are you in the planning process?
We are respecting deadlines, thanks to the hard work of the Scientific Committee, we already have an almost complete programme, and a rich one I should add. However, I want to also point out that the ERA in the last 5 years has been very focused on gender equality and, as members of the Scientific Committee, we aim to respect gender balance together with scientific quality. Our guidelines are that whenever a man and a woman are scientifically comparable, in these modern times, the choice should be in favour of a woman. The result is that the Scientific Committee is composed almost equally of women and men.

What challenges do you foresee designing a programme that will appeal to delegates with different areas of expertise and engage delegates with different levels of clinical experience?
The real challenge is to build a programme which is engaging for everybody. With this aim, we have tried to gather the Scientific Committee with nephologists of all ages, from every European country and with different fields of interest, and to take into account experiences from previous Congresses including the number of attendees for a specific area.

What can the ERA members and Congress attendees look forward to next year?
Being in Milan, I imagine attendees will expect a robust and up-to-date scientific programme as well as experiences of Italian art and culture. But I don't want to say anything else in order to leave the surprise intact.

opportunity to attend either in real life or virtually.

As always, our three key aims are to provide education, which is always the first aim of ERA, share the latest research across all fields of nephrology, dialysis, and transplantation, and promote community, which is particularly important for our working groups, committees and young nephrology platform to have the opportunity to meet together.

What can we look forward to in Milan?
First of all, we hope that the Congress next year will be as successful and popular as it has been here in Paris. This Congress has been a great celebration for the community in starting to move beyond the COVID pandemic.

Something that I am particularly proud to be doing for the 60th ERA Congress in Milan is that ERA will be planting trees in the City of Milan as part of our commitment to sustainability initiatives and, specifically, the ‘green deal’ policy in Italy.

Furthermore, I will also personally be promoting attendance from academics in wider fields such as cardiology, endocrinology, and internal medicine. This is also an opportunity for our young medical students, medical fellows, PhD students and young nephrologists to attend this important Congress. To that point, we will also be looking to expand the Fish Bowl sessions next year. I conducted a Fish Bowl session here in Paris for the first time which is a session with three experts and no slide presentations. conducted as a mini oral session, we will aim to utilise and expand these sessions further in Milan to provide a format that is clinically orientated for younger audiences, so that they can have integrated discussions with leading experts.

Working with Professor Francesca Mallamaci, and Professor Piergiorgio Messa, ERA Local Congress President in Italy, significant planning for next year is already well underway. We’re looking forward to building on a hugely successful Congress in Paris as we move forward to Milan in 2023! We hope to see you there and look forward to welcoming you in Milan.