3rd International Symposium on Podocyte Biology
“Biology and Pathology of the Podocyte”
TOUCH
Alte Anatomie
Alte AnatomieEnlarge
TOUCH
Heidelberg Castle
Heidelberg CastleEnlarge
In September 2001, the podocyte researchers reconvened in Germany for a third meeting. Wilhelm Kriz hosted the "Biology and Pathology of the Podocyte" symposium at the Institute for Anatomy and Cell Biology of the University of Heidelberg, which had become a leading center of kidney research.
The research presented by an international slate of speakers from Germany, the UK, France, the US, Canada, Austria, and Japan was organized around several timely themes:
In addition, the meeting featured a poster session and the "Inaugural Meeting of an International Podocyte Club."
The 2001 meeting was organized by the DFG (German Research Foundation) Research Group on Chronic Renal Failure: Mechanisms of Progression (Forschergruppe "Mechanismen der Progression des chronischen Nierenversagens").
“So the podocyte community grew enormously over the years. Initially it was a handful of individuals interested in the podocyte and in the proteins at the slit diaphragm and associated with the cytoskeleton. It was very much focused on this one particular fascinating cell type, and many interactions were actually evolving from conversations at the podocyte conference.
It was also a conference where we presented unpublished things. That was very, very exciting, actually. Very exciting. I think as a scientist, it's extremely important to present unpublished stuff. The true value of a scientific conference is scientific exchange, debate, discussion, questions and answers, which makes the story stronger and the science more clear.”