For Sharing Expertise

Making new technology rapidly available

To speed the advance of research in Pediatric Nephrology, new technology, especially in the fields of epigenetics, lineage tracing and molecular biology methods must be readily available to scientists interested in developing new expertise in these areas. To achieve this goal, the laboratories of investigators in the Center will be open to any scientist who wishes to learn new methodologies. In conjunction with our yearly seminar in Pediatric Nephrology we will hold a hands-on workshop the day prior to the meeting. Participants will become acquainted with the technology available at our laboratories and will have the opportunity to initiate potential collaborations with Center members including our junior faculty and students. Students, residents and postdoctoral fellows actively participate through presentations and/or roundtables at our annual symposia and seminars in kidney development and disease. Information on all the educational activities, the research progress by the participating scientists, and public information is available on our website.

Seminars at UVa on topics relevant to kidney development and disease

To expose established scientists and new investigators to important topics relevant to Pediatric Nephrology research, the Center organizes and sponsors quarterly seminars at UVA on topics relevant to kidney development and disease. A broad audience from the university research communities is invited and speakers are drawn from inside UVA and from other Universities.

Collaborations with the broader research community

With the objective of cooperating on scientific matters and enhancing the pool of prospective investigators, pilot and feasibility projects will be made available to other centers in North America, particularly the institutions of our advisors with well-established efforts in stem cell biology in USC (McMahon), Kidney and Vascular Development in the Lunenfeld Center (Sue Quaggin) and in epigenetics at the Stowers Institute (Ali Shilatifard).

International collaborations are in place with the Karolinska Institutet, Center of Excellence for Renal Research in Regensburg and Université de Paris. Faculty and students from those institutions are invited to participate in our activities, including direct scientific collaborations and participation at our workshops and seminars. We open our doors to opportunities for bilateral sabbaticals to learn and/or teach new techniques and strategies leading to a rapid pace of discovery in kidney development and disease.

One recent Ongoing International Collaboration to note, is Professor Hiroko Nishimura, MD, DMSc., Department of Health Informatics Niigata University of Health and Welfare who did a sabbatical in Dr. Gomez’s and Sequeira-Lopez’s laboratories at the Child Health Research Center February-June, 2018. Her projects, aimed at understanding the influence of maternal nutrition in the development of the kidney, are well in line with the goals of the Center of Excellence in Pediatric Nephrology.