Editorial introductions

Abstract

Current Opinion in Nephrology and Hypertension was launched in 1992. It is part of a successful series of review journals whose unique format is designed to provide a systematic and critical assessment of the literature as presented in the many primary journals. The field of nephrology and hypertension is divided into 12 sections that are each reviewed once a year. Each section is assigned a Section Editor, a leading authority in the area, who identifies the most important topics at that time. Here we are pleased to introduce the Section Editors for this issue. SECTION EDITORS Maarten W. TaalMaarten W. TaalMaarten W. Taal graduated from the University of Cape Town Medical School, South Africa, in 1987. After completion of post-graduate training in internal medicine and nephrology, at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa, he moved to Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, US. His research under the directorship of Barry M. Brenner, MD, focused on mechanisms underlying the progression of chronic kidney disease and led to his attainment of a Doctor of Medicine degree. Following this, Maarten moved to the UK where he was appointed a Consultant Renal Physician at Royal Derby Hospital, UK, in 2002. He was appointed Professor of Medicine at the University of Nottingham Medical School, UK, in 2014 where he leads the Centre for Kidney Research and Innovation. He acted as Lead Editor for Brenner and Rector's The Kidney 9th Edition and continues to serve as co-Editor for the 10th and 11th Editions. His current research interests include chronic kidney disease progression, diabetic nephropathy; chronic kidney disease – mineral bone disease; cardiovascular disease in people with chronic kidney disease and risk prediction. He is the current President of the British Renal Society. Anil ChandrakerAnil ChandrakerDr Chandraker graduated from Glasgow University in 1987 and trained in clinical medicine in the UK before coming to the Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School to complete his Fellowship in Nephrology/Transplant Immunology. Dr Chandraker joined the faculty at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in 1998 and currently serves as the Medical Director of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation. He is also the Director of the Transplantation Research Center, at Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the immediate Past President of the American Society of Transplantation. Dr Chandraker has academic interests in basic, translational and clinical areas of transplantation research. He has served as a PI or Protocol Chair on several Transplantation studies. In addition he has clinical and translational research interests in BK nephropathy, antibody mediated rejection, and generation of regulatory T cells. His basic research interest is focused primarily on T cell costimulatory pathways such as the B7-CD28/CTLA4 and PDL1-PD1 pathways and their role in tolerance and chronic allograft injury. He has mentored numerous fellows in basic and clinical research and received research funding from the National Institutes of Health, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and, the National Kidney Foundation amongst others. He has co-authored over 175 original scientific articles, review articles and book chapters including contributing chapters to Harrison's, Brenner and Rector's The Kidney, AST Primer on Transplantation and ACP Medicine Textbook, amongst others. J. Kevin TuckerJ. Kevin TuckerDr J. Kevin Tucker is an associate physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr Tucker graduated from Birmingham-Southern College and then attended medical school at Cornell University Medical College. He completed his internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston followed a nephrology fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He was on the faculty at UAB from 1996–2002. In 2002 he moved back to Boston to join the Division of Nephrology at Brigham and Women's Hospital with an appointment at Harvard Medical School. He is director of the Joint Nephrology Training Program of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, Chief of Nephrology at Brigham and Women's/Faulkner Hospital, and medical director of Dialysis Clinics, Inc-Faulkner. Dr Tucker has received numerous awards for teaching, including the Department of Medicine Division Teacher Award and Department of Medicine Top Ten Teacher Award while at UAB and the Best Teacher Award for the Renal Division at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He is active in the local activities of the National Kidney Foundation, serving as vice-chairman of the Medical Advisory Board. He has also served on the Executive Committee of the American Society of Nephrology Training Program Directors group. He is associate editor of BMC Nephrology. Dr Tucker maintains a busy general nephrology practice and manages a large panel of hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis patients.