6th International Podocyte Congress
ABOUT THE MEETING
“The honorary guest of our meeting in Helsinki was Prof Niilo Hallman, whose active research in the early fifties led to describing the Congenital Nephrotic Syndrome of the Finnish type (CNF), the strange single gene disease leading to massive proteinuria from birth. Around the time of the Helsinki meeting, the gene responsible, NPHS1 encoding nephrin, was established. It is fair to say that this finding has been the cornerstone for the whole podocyte business.”
– Meeting host, Prof. Dr. Harry Holthöfer, MD, PhD
The 2006 conference took place over four days in June, fueled by the long sunny days of Helsinki summer. Thirty-four faculty from eleven countries delivered talks on a range of topics from podocyte structure and signaling, to animal models, to disease mechanisms, with a special closing session of eight brief presentations on topics considered "Sizzling Hot in Podocyte Research"!
Amidst the science, participants were treated to a reception at Helsinki City Hall and a concert at Helsinki's unique Stone Church (Temppeliaukio).
A satellite meeting was held on the last day on the topic of the Human Kidney and Urinary Proteome, chaired by Pierre Ronco and Tadashi Yamamoto of the Human Proteome Organization and Human Kidney and Urine Proteome Project. This covered everything from practical protocols to potential translational applications of proteomics findings.