Kaplan Award

Dr. Boletta graduated in Biology from the University of Pavia, Italy. She carried out her doctorate-equivalent training at the Mario Negri Institute in Bergamo, Italy, working on gene delivery to the kidney. She went to Johns Hopkins University, USA, for her postdoctoral training. Here, she began her scientific activity on Polycystic Kidney Disease, working on heterologous expression of Polycystin-1 aimed at establishing cellular models to investigate the Polycystins function.

With support from a Telethon Career Program and a Marie Curie Excellence Award, Dr. Boletta moved back to Italy to establish her lab at the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan. Here, she took on the position of Director for the Division of Genetics and Cell Biology (2014-2019), and she is currently Head of the Research Unit. Over the years, her lab has developed several cellular and animal models to study Polycystins function and the pathophysiology of ADPKD. Her laboratory has identified metabolic reprogramming as an important feature of the disease, offering several new options for therapy as well as novel insights into the pathogenesis of ADPKD. Dr. Boletta currently serves on the PKD Foundation Scientific Advisory Committee.

Dr. Albert Ong is Professor of Renal Medicine at the University of Sheffield and a consultant nephrologist at the Sheffield Kidney Institute, UK. Born in Malaysia, he graduated from the University of Oxford with degrees in physiological sciences, clinical medicine and a doctorate in renal cell biology. Following a lectureship at University College London (UCL), he was awarded a Kidney Research UK Senior Research Fellowship in genetics at Oxford (Harris lab, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine), where he began working on the genetics and cell biology of ADPKD. After joining the University of Sheffield, he established a new research program in ADPKD, supported initially by a Wellcome Trust Research Leave Award.

The major aim of his laboratory over the past 20 years has been to investigate the molecular basis of cyst formation, in particular, the functions of the ADPKD proteins, polycystin-1, and polycystin-2, in cyst initiation. The focus of clinical and translational research has been to identify genetic and non-genetic factors influencing variability in disease expression, test novel treatments and introduce innovations to improve patient care. His international leadership roles have included OVERTURE, STAGED-PKD, SONG-PKD, KDIGO-PKD, EAF and CYSTIC. He currently serves as a member of the ERA Council and the ISN Fellowship Committee.