7th International Podocyte Conference
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
- Susan Quaggin
- Thomas Coffman
- Matthias Kretzler
- Jeffrey Miner
- Tony Pawson
- Stuart Shankland
- Karl Tryggvason
ABOUT THE MEETING
The 7th International Podocyte Meeting was held in Toronto, Canada from June 4 – 6, 2008. The meeting was a tremendous success bringing together 235 participants from around the globe to actively discuss, challenge one another and learn about the latest advances in glomerular biology and disease. The meeting focused on cutting edge investigation and topics spanned the spectrum of podocyte biology from progenitors to intracellular signaling pathways to the genetics of human glomerular disease.
The great filtration debates provided a forum to challenge our current understanding of models of glomerular filtration and the mechanism(s) of proteinuria. Oliver Smithies (Nobel Laureate in Medicine or Physiology, 2007), Wayne Comper (Victoria, Australia) and Borje Haraldsson (Goteborg, Sweden) were worthy opponents and provided new insights and raised new questions that will ensure this debate is not yet over! Andy McMahon ( Boston, USA), Ross Cagan (New York, USA), Thomas Benzing (Cologne, Germany), Tobias Huber (Freiburg, Germany) and Arindam Majumdar (Stockholm Sweden) highlighted the value of model organisms including the mouse, Drosophila (fruitfly), Zebrafish and C. Elegans (soil nematode/worm) to study podocytes and the proteins involved in disease. Participants learned that zebrafish can develop the nephrotic syndrome and fruitfly eyes tell us about podocyte proteins while pathways that regulate mechansensation in worms (C. Elegans) are conserved in human podocytes! Andy McMahon (Boston, USA), Marcus Moeller (Aachen, Germany), Richard Poulsom (Oxford, UK) and Raghu Kalluri (Boston, USA) discussed the latest advances in renal and glomerular progenitor cells and discussed the possibilities of cell based or bone marrow based strategies to treat glomerular disease. Large scale international efforts to identify and categorize all of the genes and proteins expressed by healthy and diseased podocytes were discussed by Karl Tryggvason (Dean of Research, Stockholm, Sweden), Matthias Kretzler (Ann Arbor, USA) and Tadashi Yamomoto (Japan) while the role of alternative gene regulation through microRNAs were presented by Jordan Kreidberg and Scott Harvey (watch for their exciting papers in press!).
The once simple view of podocytes as structural components of the kidney filter is now obsolete; the signaling functions of podocyte junctions (the slit diaphragms) and the associated cytoskeleton were expertly provided by Tony Pawson (Kyoto Prize in Science Awardee, 2008), Larry Holzman (Ann Arbor, USA), Ben Margolis (Ann Arbor, USA) and Peter Mundel (Miami, USA). The spectrum of human gene mutations causing glomerular disease were covered by Corinne Antignac (Paris, France), Michelle Winn (Durham, USA), David Power (Australia), Martin Pollak (Boston, USA) and Friedhelm Hildebrandt (Ann Arbor, USA) who provided the newest insights into functions of previously identified glomerular disease genes (such as podocin, ACTN4 and TRPC6) and discussed newly identified mutations in novel, unpublished genes.
Although the meeting highlighted the key role of the podocyte in the development of glomerular disease, interactions of podocytes with adjacent glomerular basement membrane and endothelial cells and other components of the filter are crucial in understanding how glomerular disease occurs; each of these components, as well as novel roles for podocytes were provided by Jeffrey Miner (St. Louis, USA), Roy Zent (Nashville, USA), Peter Mathieson (Bristol, UK) and Andrey Shaw (St. Louis, USA).
This year, best abstract awards were presented to Ania Koziell (London, UK), Paul Brinkkoetter (Seattle, USA) and Tobias Huber (Germany) with the top award given to Katalin Susztak (NY, USA) for her studies to elucidate the role of Notch signaling in diabetes and glomerular disease. This top award was named after Wilhelm Kriz in recognition of his tremendous contributions to the field of podocyte biology over the decades.
At the close of two and a half days of collegial and exciting discussions between attendees, we are confident that the goal of targeted renal therapies is closer than ever.