Workshop, 21 and 22 November, IRFMN

Ariela Benigni welcomed the TrainCKDis consortium for a 2 days meeting in the Center Anna Maria Astori, Bergamo. The IRFMN quarter in Bergamo is located in the Kilometro Rosso, an innovation district a leading innovation hub. 

In addition of the ESR and the Supervisors, Ron Korstanje and Susan Sheehan, from Jax Lab joined us. It is always a pleasure to include our partners during our workshop. They are keystones in our training program, during workshops and secondments. Several ESRs took the opportunity to plan their secondment in the USA next year. 

Once again, the ESRs presented their work. The Supervisors were really impressed by the evolution of their research. The 10 minutes presentations followed by 5 minutes of time for questions seemed however too short and the consortium would think of new ways to enable longer presentations and exchanges. 

This dense first day ended with two administrative meetings, the Junior Research Board and the Supervisory Board. We had a lot to discuss as our 6-month extension request is almost accepted. This amendment also included slight changes in Annex 1, the scientific project. It was important that the consortium exchanges on several aspects of the next steps. 

On the second day, the ESRs followed several sessions on Imaging analysis but had a first state-on-the-art lecture by Giuseppe Remuzzi. The Director of Mario Negri's lecture was on retarding renal disease progression and that after 30 years of research this was now an achievable goal. The other sessions were the following:

• Quantitative image analysis of the Kidney (Ron Korstanje)
• Tools for quantitative image analysis (Sue Sheehan)
• The value of scanning electron microscopy in kidney research (Sara Conti)
• Cyst and kidney segmentation in experimental polycystic kidney disease (Andrea Remuzzi, University of Bergamo)
• Diagnostic imaging in patients with kidney disease (Anna Caroli)

In addition of the scientific sessions, the consortium had the opportunity to visit the Center Anna Maria Astori. 

The usual networking dinner was in Città Alta, the medieval upper town.