Understanding the Pandemic

Currently, Dr. Chatterjee serves on the Editorial Board of several journals in the field of pulmonary physiology (American Journal of Physiology: Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, Pulmonary Circulation and Jacobs Journal of Physiology). She has published more than 50 papers in peer reviewed journals. She has also received numerous awards such as the Carolin Tum Suden young Investigator Award, and the Hermann Rahn award for Excellence if Pulmonary Physiology in 2015.

Dr. Anand Viswanathan is a member of the Massachusetts Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and is a staff neurologist in both the Stroke Service and Memory Disorders Unit. He received his MD, PhD in medicine and molecular genetics from Emory University. He was trained in internal medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center prior to his residency program in vascular neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Brigham and Women's Hospital. Dr. Viswanathan served as a clinical research fellow with Professors Marie-Germaine Bousser and Hugues Chabriat at the Hospital Lariboisiere in Paris from 2005-2006. His group actively collaborates with colleagues at the Hospital. Dr. Viswanathan's research interests include studying the contributions of stroke and vascular risk factors to dementia.

Dr. Aravind Ganesh is a Vascular and Cognitive Neurologist. He completed his MD degree at the University of Calgary, followed by a DPhil in Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Prevention of Stroke and Dementia as a Rhodes scholar. He earned an Associate Fellowship from the United Kingdom’s Higher Education Academy through his teaching contributions at St John’s College (Oxford). He completed his neurology residency in Calgary, followed by a combined fellowship in stroke and cognitive neurology, funded by Alberta Innovates and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Dr. Ganesh is a Fellow of the Canadian Stroke Consortium and actively involved in the development of best-practice guidelines for stroke and dementia care. His clinical research is focused on natural history, prevention, and treatment of stroke and cognitive impairment. He is passionate about medical education, and serves on the editorial boards of Neurology, Neurology: Clinical Practice, and Stroke.

Ching-lung Lai is the Emeritus Professor and was the Simon KY Lee Professor in Gastroenterology and the Chair Professor of Medicine and Hepatology at the Department of Medicine, University of Hong Kong. For the last four decades Dr. Lai has been extensively involved in research on various aspects of the hepatitis B virus, including molecular virology, natural history, treatment, and prevention. He is one of the lead investigators in the pivotal trials of various nucleos(t)ide analogues which have revolutionized the treatment of chronic hepatitis B. He is also involved in studies for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C. Recently Dr. Lai’s group started studying immune response to COVID-19. Professor Lai has published over 520 peer-reviewed papers and reviews in international journals. His publications have been widely cited and he is one of top scientists in the field of chronic hepatitis B infection and has edited a book on the topic.

Professor of Nephrology, Director of the Department of Medicine of the Ospedali Riuniti di Bergamo (Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital), Italy and Director of the Division of Nephrology and Dialysis of the same hospital. He also directs the Negri Bergamo Laboratories of the “Mario Negri” Institute for Pharmacological Research, a group of basic scientists and clinicians devoted to the study of human renal diseases and their corresponding animal models from the perspective of pathophysiology and therapeutic intervention. He touched major advances in many areas of nephrology. For example, his studies have led to new insights into many disorders, including the interactions between platelets and endothelium, pathophysiology of glomerular diseases and the factors that influence the progressive loss of kidney function. Work focused on improving the outlook for patients with end stage renal disease. Giuseppe Remuzzi pays tribute to the work of pioneers such as Barry Brenner, who delved deep into the processes behind glomerular function and their possible reversibility. Early work on the use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors to slow the decline of glomerular filtration rates proved dialysis was avoidable, not inevitable. Studies on immunologic mechanisms that influence the survival of transplanted organs, understanding of immunologic tolerance in the disorders that are linked to autoimmunity and finally, genetic diseases of the kidney have also been areas of investigation. Concerned by kidney donation shortages and deploring the current practice of discarding suboptimal donor kidneys, his team has shown that transplanting such kidneys in pairs is feasible and have set up an international effort to validate this approach. Giuseppe Remuzzi is investigating the kidney's ability to regenerate itself.

He authored and co-authored more than 1201 scientific articles, reviews and monographs and serves on editorial boards of numerous journals, he is member of the International Advisory Board of The Lancet and is Editorial Board member of the New England Journal of Medicine from 1995-2013. During his professional career he received the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) Jean Hamburger Award (World Congress of Nephrology (WCN) 2005, Singapore), the John P. Peters Award (American Society of Nephrology (ASN) 2007, San Francisco) and the ISN AMGEN Award (WCN 2011, Vancouver). In November 2011, he won the Third Edition of the International Award "Luis Hernando" assigned by the Iñigo Alvarez de Toledo Renal Foundation (FRIAT) in Madrid, Spain. He is, since June 2013, President of the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) for the period 2013-2015.