Laurel Damashek: Welcome to GN in
Ten, a bite sized podcast brought

to you by the International
Society of Glomerular Disease.

Our hosts are nephrologists and
glomerular disease experts Dr.

Kenar Jhaveri of Northwell
Health and Hofstra University on

Long Island, New York, and Dr.

Koyal Jain from the University
of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Koyal Jain: So welcome everybody.

I'm so excited to welcome you to
our ISGD podcast, also known as

glomerulonephritis or GN in Ten.

I am Koyal Jain from the University
of North Carolina and I have

with us a very special guest.

This is our very first podcast with
the International Society of Glomerular

Disease and through these short podcasts
we're hoping to connect you with the

leaders in glomerular diseases and provide
updates on not only glomerular diseases,

but also in research and clinical
trials and how you can get involved.

And we are hoping that you would
be part of this journey with us.

Kenar Jhaveri: And Koyal forgot nicely
her co host Kenar Jhaveri from Northwell.

It's so typical of Koyal to do that.

Koyal Jain: Before we introduce
our very special guest there is

somebody that is making this happen.

Her name is Laurel Damashek and she
is the executive director of ISGD

and the producer of this podcast.

It wouldn't be possible without her.

Kenar Jhaveri: Totally.

Welcome Tobias, or Tobi, like
he likes to be called in the U.

S., Huber, who is our current president
and the founding president of the ISGD.

Welcome, and we will start off
with just tell us about yourself

and how you got involved with ISGD.

Tobias Huber: Thanks Koyal.

Thanks Kenar.

I'm at the Hamburg Medical University
Center in Hamburg-Eppendorf, one

of the largest university medical
centers in Europe, around 2,000

beds and 15,000 employees.

And it was actually the first fully
digitalized hospital in Europe.

There I'm acting as a chair of
a center of internal medicine.

And I'm directing the Third
Department of Medicine, which

is nephrology, transplantation,
rheumatology, endocrinology.

My research interest has been
for the last 25 years glomerular

biology and glomerular disease.

And with that, I've been part of the
Podocyte community from its beginning.

When we hosted the 10th International
Podocyte Meeting in Freiburg

2014, we came up with a broader
title for the Podocyte meeting.

We called it "From Glomerular
Biology to Glomerular Medicine."

At this time, the meeting was co-hosted
and fully operated by NephCure.

We started a discussion how we
could get glomerular medicine more

officially formalized . And then it
was really Josh Tarnoff from NephCure

the last two years who pushed the
idea of an independent society.

And it was Josh flying out one year
ago to visit me in Hamburg, asking

me whether I would like to join the
team and to eventually become the

inaugural president of a society.

agreed.

And Here we are.

Koyal Jain: This is so super exciting.

And I will say Kenar and I have been
really glad, but also humbled by this

opportunity to work with you all.

And we have such an amazing
cast of people, if I may say so.

Kenar Jhaveri: Thank you
for mentioning me this time.

Koyal Jain: Thank you so much Tobi
for your introduction and also

for how ISGD really came about.

We've always had glomerular
diseases and glomerular disease

specialists for a while.

Then why was there a need for ISGD now?

Why not a year ago?

Why not later?

Tobias Huber: The impact that GD
specialists can make on their patients has

never been bigger than today, than now.

There's new targets, new therapies,
new biomarkers, new trials coming

around the corner every other week.

So this really calls now for
professionalizing our network, for

putting forward standards for GD centers,
for GD fellowships, for joining forces,

and for really synchronizing in trial
recruitment and patient matching.

Of course, there are many strong
programs in place already, and ISGD is

not replacing the programs, but rather
building on these programs, connecting

the existing strong programs, and these
programs that are already in place will

serve as blueprints for the nucleation
of new centers around the globe.

Kenar Jhaveri: So Koyal and Tobi really
just coined the term right now, GD.

We used to call it GN, but I guess
glomerular disease fits better

with all this nomenclature change
that's happening in nephrology.

But let's not focus on the nomenclature.

Tobi, one of the questions I had was,
what is the role of ISGD when already

there are other societies like ASN,
ERA, ISN, KDIGO Guidelines, GlomCon?

So what does ISGD bring to the table?

Tobias Huber: This is a question, of
course, that has been trying ourselves and

all our committees and members, so ISGD
will not duplicate efforts being done by

other societies, we see our role rather.

in connecting the pieces that are
already there, in professionalizing

and standardizing the programs
to develop, and filling the

gaps that are not in place yet.

And we should mention there is no
competition with the other societies.

In contrast, most of our members
of the steering committee are in

leadership roles in the other societies.

So this is really a joint
and friendly effort.

And most other societies
have been very forthcoming to

support us in our development.

Now, what does it mean not to duplicate?

It really means that we are becoming
a central hub, gathering experts and

professionals from all different
fields, including the pharma field,

the medical field, but also patient
interests, that we connect the pieces

and resources that are already in
place, and that we help and drive the

individual enterprises in each place.

Koyal Jain: And , how do you
think that ISGD will get the

global community together?

So not just the societies,
but the people, the patients?

Tobias Huber: So I think it
will be at least on four levels.

So the first level is really
what I just mentioned.

We will be a central hub and gathering
place for resources, for tools, for

gateways, for patient to trial matching.

building up this kind of virtual world.

And as we speak, we are building up
the website and the applications and

all the new tools that we develop that
soon will be available for our members.

Number two will be, of course,
the channels via social media.

The podcast, as we do it right now,
number three will be the annual or

biennial meetings, and the first
meeting will be in June 2025.

This will be a joint meeting of
the Podocyte meeting and the first

inaugural ISGD meeting.

It will take place in Hamburg and be the
main gathering place for experts around

the globe, coming together, exchanging the
experiences, helping to build up programs

and the future of glomerular medicine.

And fourth, it will really be
our networks, also informal

networks that started meeting at
all other big society meetings.

Kenar Jhaveri: So before I go on
to some more serious questions,

let me ask you, what is your
favorite glomerular disease and why?

Tobias Huber: Favorite is an interesting
term, but basically the main research

interest has been podocytopathies,
so membranous nephropathy, minimal

change and FSGS, and I think while we
made a lot of progress in membranous

nephropathy over the last 15 years,
there's still a lot to discover in

minimal change disease and FSGS.

We probably will
reclassify these diseases.

We will probably understand that this is
a continuum between these two diseases.

We'll probably understand the
factors driving the diseases.

So this is something that is really
driving me and our team at the moment

and hopefully ISGD can contribute
to a much better understanding and

reclassification within the near future.

Koyal Jain: Okay, you sound really
passionate about glomerular diseases,

which I completely agree with.

This is how Kenar and I feel as well.

But what else are you passionate
about besides medicine?

What really drives you?

Tobias Huber: It's an
interesting thing with passion.

I think I learned that passion
is a personality trait.

So who's passionate in work is
also passionate in private life.

It's really true.

And this means for me personally, being
very passionate about outdoor activities,

hiking, friends, family, sports, and
history, and just a general curiosity in

understanding what's happening around us.

Kenar Jhaveri: That's great, Tobi.

So the question then is what is
the future of the society and where

do you see in the next five years?

Tobias Huber: It will be a sustainable
network for professionals, for healthcare

providers . The meeting point of
everybody to come together, to elaborate

glomerular medicine, to drive glomerular
fellowship programs, to drive education.

And at the end.

to improve patient healthcare.

Koyal Jain: We've talked about
ISGD at length, and we've asked

you all these questions, but
what do you want people to know,?

Tobias Huber: I want them to
share our enthusiasm for ISGD.

To join our enterprise.

As we speak, we have over 700 members from
almost 60 countries from six continents.

Join us, help to shape our mission,
develop our programs and be part of an

improved glomerular disease medicine.

Let's move from glomerular
diseases to glomerular health.

And we would enjoy it uttermostly
if you would be part of this.

Koyal Jain: Thank you, Tobi, for being
with us and spending time with us.

And I've really enjoyed having you and
I'm purposefully forgetting Kenar again.

Kenar Jhaveri: Thank you, Tobi.

And thank you Koyal for forgetting again.

But we're signing off from GN in 10 and
we'll see you again in the next podcast.

Laurel Damashek: This has been
GN in 10 from the International

Society of Glomerular Disease.

You can listen and subscribe
wherever podcasts are found

and tweet at us at @ISGDtweets.

Thank you for joining us.