BK polyomavirus: clinical aspects and immune regulation
Hans Hirsch
Director of the Clinical Virology Diagnostic Laboratory
University of Basel
Consultant Infectious Diseases & Hospital Epidemiology
University Hospital Basel
Basel, Switzerland
Hans H. Hirsch, MD, MSc, studied medicine at the Albert-Ludwigs-University in Freiburg (Germany) and biochemistry at Oregon State University in Corvallis (OR, USA). He then specialized in internal medicine, infectious diseases, and medical microbiology at the University of Basel and the University Hospital Basel. In 2004, the Medical Faculty of the University of Basel appointed him as Professor for Medical Microbiology. Currently, Dr. Hirsch is the director of the Clinical Virology diagnostic laboratory and holds a senior clinical appointment as a consultant in Infectious Diseases at the University Hospital Basel. Dr. Hirsch heads the research group “Transplantation & Clinical Virology” at the Department of Biomedicine of the University of Basel. Dr. Hirsch has a special interest in virus infections and immunocompromised patients, including transplant and HIV patients, and is a member of the Swiss HIV Cohort Study, the Swiss Transplant Cohort Study. Dr. Hirsch was engaged as TTS-Transplant Infectious Disease Councilor for Africa-Europe-Middle East (2015 – 2017) and is Fellow of European Society Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ESCMID), Fellow of the American Society of Transplantation (FAST), and the current president of the International Immunocompromised Host Society (ICHS).
BK polyomavirus: emerging therapies
Brian Nankivell
Transplant Physician, Dept Renal Medicine
Westmead Hospital
Sydney, Australia
Dr. Nankivell is currently a practicing nephrologist and transplant clinician working at Westmead Hospital and the National Pancreas Transplant Unit in Sydney.
His MBBS was from the University of Sydney. Following his FRACP, specializing in nephrology, an MSc in pharmacology from the University of London, and two doctorates from the University of Sydney were obtained; as a Ph.D. in the mechanisms of progression of chronic renal failure and a higher doctorate MD examining transplant graft dysfunction.
His research interests involve transplant renal function, the structural-functional relationships of failing allografts, renal function estimation, the histopathology of acute and chronic transplant rejection, calcineurin inhibitor nephrotoxicity, BK virus allograft nephropathy, and the Banff schema of diagnostic transplant pathology.
Chairs
Helen Pilmore
Associate Professor
Auckland University and Auckland City Hospital
Aukland, New Zealand
John Kanelis
Head of Transplantation
Monash Medical Centre
Melbourne, Australia
