Key Dates
6 May 2008
Notification of Acceptances
26 May 2008
Early Registration Cut-off Date
9 June 2008
Late breaking Abstract Submission Date
2 July 2008
Pre & Post Congress Tours
2 July 2008
Social Program Bookings
2 July 2008
Congress Day Tours
9 July 2008
Accommodation Bookings
9 July 2008
Accommodation Deposit deadline
9-10 August 2008
Postgraduate Weekend Courses
10-14 August 2008
Congress Opens
With thanks to
PATRICIA ELIZABETH BIRK, MD, FRCP(C)
Patricia Birk, MD, FRCP(C) took an indirect route into medicine through fine arts. In 1990, she obtained her medical degree from the University of Manitoba, Canada, and in 1994, she completed her Pediatrics residency at the Children's Hospital of Winnipeg.
She then travelled "south" to the University of Minnesota, USA, to pursue fellowship training in Pediatric Nephrology with an emphasis on renal transplantation. In 1999, following her return to Winnipeg, she initiated the Pediatric Protocol Biospy Program under the mentorship of Dr. David Rush.
Dr. Birk is presently the medical director of Pediatric Renal Transplantation (Transplant Manitoba Gift of Life Program) and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Manitoba. Dr. Birk has received seven been continuously funded since her fellowship by national and international research grants, including the National Institutes of Health Clinical Trials in Organ Transplantation (CTOT-01) study. Her prior visual arts endeavors have evolved into a research career utilizing digital photography and computerized image analysis to study the evolution of chronic renal allograft pathology in adult and pediatric recipients-life imitating art.
Minnie Sarwal MD, PhD
Minnie Sarwal MD, PhD is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University (Stanford, CA). She is an active member of the Pediatric Renal Transplant clinical program at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital (Palo Alto, CA), in addition to conducting the major thrust of clinical and basic science translational research within the division of Pediatric Nephrology, focusing on the molecular and immunological bases of renal transplant dysfunction.Amongst her contributions to the transplant community is the development and implementation of the first steroid-free immunosuppression protocol for pediatric renal transplant recipients, sparing those patients significant, dose related morbidity including osseous, cardiovascular, metabolic complications, body disfigurement and growth retardation associated with chronic corticosteroid therapy; additionally Dr. Sarwal has also led the transplant field in genomics and proteomics research and was the first to identify significant molecular heterogeneity in transplant rejection, which defines clinical and prognostic differences in transplant patient outcomes.
Each year since 2000, Dr. Sarwal has been named to the list of Best Doctors in America, and since 2004 has been on the list of Who's Who in Medicine and HealthCare. She serves as Associate Editor for the American Journal of Transplantation, is actively involved in several university and medical center leader development programs, and was recently elected Senator-at-Large by the Stanford University Medical School Faculty Senate. She currently mentors numerous undergraduate and graduate students, medical students, PhD candidates, and post-doctoral scholars; she has been invited to and given more than 150 lectures and presentations at various universities and professional organization meetings, published more than 70 peer-reviewed articles, 7 book chapters, and over 150 abstracts.
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