Brian J.G. Pereira is a nationally recognized expert on kidney disease and nephrology. He is currently President and CEO of Visterra, Inc. He also serves as an adjunct Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences, and the Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). [1]
Pereira is originally from Mangalore, India. He is the alumni of St. Aloysius College (Bangalore). He earned an MBBS degree from St. Johns Medical College in Bangalore, an MD in Internal Medicine and a DM in Nephrology from the Post Graduate Institute in Chandigarh, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He has published more than 200 articles in medical journals, delivered more than 500 invited lectures, served on the board of 12 scientific journals and edited the widely used textbook “Chronic Kidney Disease, Dialysis and Transplantation”, according to Dr Manju Sheth. [2]
From 1993 to 2005, Pereira held various positions at Tufts Medical Center, including serving as Interim Chief Operating Officer in 2001, and President and Chief Executive Officer of a Physician Organization from October 2001 to November 2005. He was the President of the National Kidney Foundation from 2002 to 2004, and has served on the editorial board of twelve scientific journals. Pereira is on the Board of Directors/Trustees of Biodel, Visterra, NephroPlus, Africa Healthcare Network, and American India Foundation. He has previously been a director of the National Kidney Foundation, Aksys, Kidney Care Partners, Tengion, Wellbound, and Satellite Health Care. In addition, Pereira was a member of the advisory boards of Amgen and Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals along with several other organizations. [3] He served as President and CEO of AMAG Pharmaceuticals (formerly Advanced Magnetics) from 2006 to 2011. [4] At AMAG, Pereira raised four financing rounds at increasing valuations and built the clinical development and manufacturing infrastructure for the company’s iron therapy product for anemia. [5] In July 2013, Pereira was appointed as President and CEO of Visterra, Inc., a company that is advancing product candidates into human clinical trials for infectious diseases. [6]
Nephrology is a specialty of adult internal medicine and pediatric medicine that concerns the study of the kidneys, specifically normal kidney function and kidney disease, the preservation of kidney health, and the treatment of kidney disease, from diet and medication to renal replacement therapy. The word “renal” is an adjective meaning “relating to the kidneys”, and its roots are French or late Latin. Whereas according to some opinions, "renal" and "nephro" should be replaced with "kidney" in scientific writings such as "kidney medicine" or "kidney replacement therapy", other experts have advocated preserving the use of renal and nephro as appropriate including in "nephrology" and "renal replacement therapy", respectively.
Amgen Inc. is an American multinational biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California. One of the world's largest independent biotechnology companies, Amgen's Thousand Oaks staff in 2022 numbered approximately 5,000 and included hundreds of scientists, making Amgen the largest employer in Ventura County. As of 2022, Amgen has approximately 24,000 staff in total.
Biocon Limited is an Indian biopharmaceutical company based in Bangalore. It was founded by Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw in 1978. The company manufactures generic active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) that are sold in approximately 120 countries, including the United States and Europe. It also manufactures novel biologics as well as biosimilar insulins and antibodies, which are sold in India as branded formulations. Biocon's biosimilar products are also sold in both bulk and formulation forms in several emerging markets.
Robert William Schrier was founding editor-in-chief of the magazine Nature Clinical Practice Nephrology. Schrier was formerly Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine for 26 years, and Head of the Division of Renal Diseases and Hypertension for 20 years. At the time of his death, he was Professor Emeritus at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He died in Potomac, Maryland.
Robert Provenzano is an American nephrologist. He is also an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at Wayne State University School of Medicine.
Founded in 1966, the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) is the world's largest professional society devoted to the study of kidney disease. Composed of over 20,000 physicians and scientists, ASN promotes expert patient care, advances medical research, and educates the renal community. ASN also informs policymakers about issues of importance to kidney doctors and their patients.
John Putnam Merrill was an American physician and medical researcher. He led the team which performed the world's first successful kidney transplant. He generally credited as the "father of nephrology" or "the founder of nephrology," which is the scientific study of the kidney and its diseases.
Michael R. Hayden, is a Killam Professor of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia, the highest honour UBC can confer on any faculty member. Only four such awards have ever been conferred in the Faculty of Medicine. Dr. Hayden is also Canada Research Chair in Human Genetics and Molecular Medicine. Hayden is best known for his research in Huntington disease (HD).
Ronald Jonathan Falk, MD, FACP, FASN is the Nan and Hugh Cullman Eminent Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (UNC). He is a clinical nephrologist and internationally recognized expert in anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA)-induced vasculitis and autoimmune kidney disease. His career as a translational physician-scientist spans more than three decades. His clinical practice and translational research focus on characterizing the cell, tissue and physiologic changes in the development of specific autoimmune kidney diseases and developing new approaches for studying autoimmunity, inflammation and basic neutrophil/monocyte biology. He was Chief of the UNC Division of Nephrology and Hypertension from 1993-2015. He co-founded the UNC Kidney Center in 2005 and continues as Co-Director. Falk is a Past-President of the American Society of Nephrology (ASN). Since 2015, he has served as Chair of the Department of Medicine at UNC.
Carmine Zoccali is an Italian nephrologist and a clinical investigator. He has contributed to research in several fields, most notably hypertension and cardiovascular complications in chronic kidney disease (CKD), CKD progression and clinical epidemiology of kidney diseases at large. He is known for his studies on cardiovascular risk in CKD and dialysis patients. He was among the earliest investigators that focused on the relevance of endothelial dysfunction and inflammation for the high risk of cardiovascular disease in these populations. In this research area, he was the first to link endogenous inhibitors of the nitric oxide system with death and cardiovascular disease. and the first to document a relationship between sympathetic over-activity and these outcomes Dr Zoccali is a practicing specialist in Nephrology, with a national qualification for the full professorship in Nephrology. He is also a specialist in hypertension, certified by the European Society of Hypertension (ESH).
AMAG Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is an American pharmaceutical company developing products that treat iron deficiency anemia (IDA) in adult patients. The company was a publicly traded company listed on NASDAQ under the symbol "AMAG" until November 2020 when it was acquired by Covis Pharma.
Anoop Misra is an Indian endocrinologist and a former honorary physician to the Prime Minister of India. He is the chairman of Fortis Centre for Diabetes, Obesity and Cholesterol (C-DOC) and heads, National Diabetes Obesity and Cholesterol Foundation (NDOC). A former Fellow of the World Health Organization at the Royal Free Hospital, UK, Misra is a recipient of the Dr. B. C. Roy Award, the highest Indian award in the medical category. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2007, for his contributions to Indian medicine.
Jochen Reiser is a physician-scientist and a healthcare leader. He is the Ralph C Brown MD Professor and the Chairman of Medicine at Rush University Medical Center. Dr. Reiser's research has provided important mechanistic insights into the molecular pathogenesis of kidney diseases. Dr. Reiser discovered the role of suPAR as a global, circulating risk factor for chronic kidney disease (CKD) as well as for acute kidney injury (AKI). suPAR is investigated as potential causative agent contributing to many kidney diseases including focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). These studies have broad clinical significance and lay the foundation for creation of novel diagnostics and pharmaco-therapeutics with potential benefit for a large patient population. His studies on suPAR molecule were featured in Science in 2018. Dr. Reiser has been an advocate of science and innovation for two decades and was named as an inventor on multiple patents. He is co-founder of Cambridge, MA-based Walden Biosciences, an ARCH Venture Partners joint-venture biopharmaceutical portfolio company dedicated to develop first-in-class therapeutics for kidney diseases.
CSL Vifor is a global specialty pharmaceuticals company in the treatment areas of iron deficiency, dialysis, nephrology & rare disease. It is headquartered in Switzerland and consists of CSL Vifor, Vifor Fresenius Medical Care Renal Pharma (VFMCRP) and Sanifit Therapeutics.
H Sudarshan Ballal is an Indian kidney transplant physician, nephrologist currently director of Manipal Institute of Nephrology and Urology, the chairman of the Medical Advisory Board of Manipal Hospitals Group and Senate Member of Manipal University.
Donald Wayne Seldin was an American nephrologist. He worked at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and served as chair of the department of medicine for 36 years.
Patricia Anne Acquaviva Gabow is an American academic physician, medical researcher, healthcare executive, author and lecturer. Specializing in nephrology, she joined the department of medicine, division of renal diseases, at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in 1973, advancing to a full professorship in 1987; she is presently Professor Emerita. She was the principal investigator on the National Institutes of Health Human Polycystic Kidney Disease research grant, which ran from 1985 to 1999, and defined the clinical manifestations and genetics of the disease in adults and children. She served for two decades as CEO of Denver Health, an integrated public healthcare system in Denver, Colorado, where she implemented numerous business-based systems to streamline operations, improve patient care, and recognize cost savings. In particular, her introduction of the "Lean" quality-improvement system, based on the Toyota Production System, earned her national recognition. She is the author of more than 150 articles and book chapters, three books, and has received numerous awards for excellence in teaching, physician care, and leadership. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2004.
Reshma Kewalramani, is the president and chief executive officer of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company based in Boston, Massachusetts, as of April 1, 2020. She is the first female CEO of a large US biotech company. She was previously the chief medical officer and vice president of global medicines development and medical affairs at Vertex.
Molahalli Shantharam Shetty FRCS, is an orthopaedic surgeon and Pro Chancellor of Nitte University.
Adeera Levin MD, FRCPC is a Professor of Medicine, and is head of the Division of Nephrology at University of British Columbia.