Conference Schedule

A weekly research conference exposes fellows to current renal and Nephrology research. The format exposes them to cutting edge techniques and encourages them to critically evaluate the findings that are being presented.

Teaching Methods

Each week a research conference is presented by either a Stanford faculty member or a Stanford fellow or by a visiting professor or scientist from another institution. Most research conferences are devoted to a presentation of current research that has recently been completed.

The fellow, or more senior presenter, systematically describes the hypothesis being tested, the methods and experimental design, the results including the statistical analysis, and conclusions drawn from the findings. An occasional research conference is devoted to presenting a proposal for a research project and offering an experimental design. After a formal presentation lasting 45-50 minutes, a 15-minute question and answer and discussion session is held, in which fellows are encouraged to participate.

Scope of Conferences

Research conferences are presented by in roughly equal proportions by:

• Fellows and faculty of the Nephrology division
• Stanford faculty and fellows who are working in non-nephrological but research areas of overlapping interest,
• Visiting investigators invited to present primarily Nephrology research, because their work is judged by the Nephrology faculty to be of outstanding quality and interest.

The range of Nephrology research topics is broad and includes physiology, pathophysiology, vascular, cell and molecular biology, transplantation and immunobiology, molecular genetics and health policy and outcomes research. The non-Nephrology research conferences given by Stanford colleagues cover the same disciplines, but the research is not related directly to the kidney or kidney diseases.