You are warmly welcomed to attend the inaugural symposium of Professors Stephen Marks, Rukshana Shroff and David Long.

This is a hybrid event held in the Kennedy Lecture Theatre , UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health & online via Zoom:

Link to join via Zoom: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/94193106646

Programme:

3:00pm Professor Stephen Marks, Professor of Paediatric Nephrology and Transplantation

Title: ‘The formula for success = (LdT)5’

3:50pm Professor Rukshana Shroff, Professor of Paediatric Nephrology

Title: ‘My journey through paediatric nephrology: following the yellow brick road’

4:40 – 5:00pm tea/coffee on the Balcony

5:00pm Professor David Long, Professor in Paediatric Nephrology

Title: 'The renal detective: twenty years searching for clues to understand and treat kidney disease’

5.50pm Drinks reception in the Winter Garden

RSVP Reserve a place by registering via Eventbrite.

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Professor Stephen Marks

Professor of Paediatric Nephrology and Transplantation

Title: ‘The formula for success = (LdT)5’

Abstract

Pre-emptive living donor kidney transplantation is the gold standard kidney replacement therapy for children and young people with irreversible kidney failure. In my inaugural lecture, I will share some of the key stories that have shaped my life as a clinical academic, and helped me characterise the formula for success, which may be the key for others to follow. Defining the hypotheses has shaped my career from understanding biomarkers of disease activity in systemic lupus erythematosus and lupus nephritis, as well as ascertaining outcomes of children and young people after kidney transplantation. Providing holistic care and improving the patient journey is important for the present but defining the questions that need answering on how best to diagnose, monitor and inform decisions in managing children and young people at risk of developing flares of disease activity and kidney transplant injury, can only be obtained with patient and public involvement, engagement and participation. I will summarise my research goals and findings, highlighting the importance of team working as well as national and international collaborations.

I will focus on my research journey at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust and University College London Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health and stress the importance of robust multi-centre randomised controlled trials in my role as Director of National Institute for Health Research Great Ormond Street Hospital Clinical Research Facility during the COVID-19 pandemic. I will highlight ATTOMic, my study on Access to Transplantation and Transplant Outcome Measures in Children as well as the importance of always speaking out, asking questions, aiming for future goals, educating and mentoring our future staff by looking after trainees, research students and all members of the clinical and research multi-disciplinary teams.

Biography

I was born and raised in Scotland, with formidable training in Newcastle upon Tyne before exploring and training in both Australia and Canada – not forgetting stumbling upon London in between as a place to live and work. I first came to GOSH in November 1997 and my interest for clinical and research knowledge was sparked by encountering paediatric nephrology which led to me embarking on MSc and then MD at UCL GOS ICH – and the rest is history !

I am now a passionate paediatric nephrologist with extensive clinical and research work in the fields of systemic lupus erythematosus, vasculitis and kidney transplantation. Having spent further clinical and academic training here and elsewhere, nearly 25 years later, I lead the clinical kidney transplantation programme and am the Director of National Institute for Health Research Great Ormond Street Hospital Clinical Research Facility and cross-cutting theme lead for Patient and Public Involvement, Engagement and Participation and high intensity inpatient trials at NIHR Great Ormond Street Hospital Biomedical Research Centre.

I have a full time NHS clinical consultant appointment being named as one of The Times Top 100 Children’s Doctors in the United Kingdom and provide clinical and academic nephrology input in our own accredited Lupus UK Centre of Excellence for Children and Young People which was granted in January 2020. I have held local, national and international roles including chair of the British Association for Paediatric Nephrology and UK Renal Registry Audit and Informatics committee having previously been the chair of the National Health Service Blood and Transplant Paediatric Kidney Advisory Group.

In my spare time, I have been devoted to developing an academic career with a substantial translational research portfolio securing external grant funding of over £9m (including NIHR, KRUK, and ESPN) and work with many national and international collaborative groups of the British Association for Paediatric Nephrology. European Society for Paediatric Nephrology and International Pediatric Transplant Association. I remain passionate about education and give regular local, national and national international lectures understanding that we are all students at the university of life so I continue to ask questions and publish widely, proud to be co-editor of the “Great Ormond Street Handbook of Paediatrics” since its first edition, and now senior editor of the third edition. However, it is truly down to the grounding of my family and friends that enable me to thrive in the job that I adore with the incredible clinical and research teams ! Time for a malt whisky…

Professor Rukshana Shroff

Professor of Paediatric Nephrology

Title: ‘My journey through paediatric nephrology: following the yellow brick road’

Abstract

Rukshana has a special interest in the management of children with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and on dialysis. She has set up a high quality translational research program that informs evidence based practice, aiming to modify the evolution of cardiovascular disease, the biggest killer in CKD patients. In this inaugural talk she will present her career journey, discussing the work from her research team on bone and cardiovascular disease.

Biography

Rukshana Shroff is a Professor of Paediatric Nephrology at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and University College London, UK. Her research focuses on bone and cardiovascular disease in childhood CKD and improving outcomes for children on dialysis. She holds a prestigious senior fellowship from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). After completing her training in Bombay, India, she worked in Paediatric Nephrology in the UK, pursuing a research carer under the supervision of Professor Lesley Rees at GOSH.

Rukshana is well known to the international nephrology community through her research and teaching activities. She is a co-editor for the 8th edition of Pediatric Nephrology, the definitive textbook in the field. She has served on the KDIGO Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) Executive Committee and works on international guideline committees for KDIGO, NICE and ESPN. She serves on the editorial board of several journals and has published over 300 original articles, reviews and editorials. She is an Educational Ambassador for the International Society of Nephrology, promoting paediatric nephrology training through Asia and Africa.

Professor David Long

Professor in Paediatric Nephrology

Title: ‘The renal detective: twenty years searching for clues to understand and treat kidney disease’

Abstract

In this lecture, David will describe the highs (and lows) of his research journey over 20 years in kidney biology. He will highlight advances from his group which have identified new treatment targets for kidney patients and how these could be applied in the future.

Biography

David is a Professor in Paediatric Nephrology and a Wellcome Trust Investigator in Science based in the Developmental Biology and Cancer theme at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (GOSICH) with experience in the renal and vascular biology fields. His initial research experience was gained at GOSICH as an MRC-funded PhD student (1999-2002) under the supervision of Professor Adrian Woolf, before postdoctoral work in the USA in the laboratory of Professor Richard Johnson at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, and the University of Florida. David then returned to GOSICH and developed his own research group supported by a Senior Non-Clinical Fellowship from Kidney Research UK (2008-14), an MRC New Investigator Award (2012-16) and a Wellcome Trust Investigator Award (2020-).

David’s group has a strong kidney translational research mission which aims to understand mechanisms which underlie kidney disease in children and adults with the goal of translating these findings for patient benefit. To do this, they combine experimental models of kidney disease and patient samples with innovative technologies including three-dimensional imaging, mathematical modelling, gene editing, stem cell technology and novel therapeutic approaches.

In the Chair: Professor Rosalind Smyth, Director and Professor of Child Health, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health.

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RSVP Reserve a place by registering via Eventbrite.