Burkhard Tönshoff, MD, PhD, is professor of pediatrics and pediatric nephrology at the University Children’s Hospital Heidelberg, Germany; Vice Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics I (General Pediatrics, Neuropediatrics, Metabolism, Gastroenterology, and Nephrology); Medical Director of the Pediatric Kidney Transplantation Program. His current research focuses on various issues in acute and chronic kidney disease and renal transplantation, such as studies on the pharmacokinetics, efficacy and safety of novel immunosuppressive drugs in pediatric renal transplant recipients, optimization of immunosuppressive therapy by therapeutic drug monitoring and immune monitoring, prevention of infectious and other complications after renal transplantation, biomarker-guided minimization of immunosuppressive therapy and the impact of donor-specific HLA and non-HLA antibodies on graft histology and function. In the year 2009 he founded the Cooperative European Paediatric Renal Transplant Initiative (CERTAIN; www.certain-registry.eu) as a multicenter research network and platform built on a novel, web-based registry. Other research activities focus on the pathophysiology and therapy of the nephrotic syndrome, biomarker research for acute kidney injury, the role of endothelial progenitor cells and mesenchymal stem cells in various pediatric kidney diseases and the role of the gut microbiome in solid organ transplantation.

            Awards and nominations: Eurotransplant Kidney Advisory Committee. Scientific Steering Committee der DZIF Transplantationskohorte e.V.. Chair, Working Group “Renal Transplantation” of the European Society for Paediatric Nephrology (ESPN) and of the German Society for Paediatric Nephrology (GPN). Council of the International Pediatric Transplant Association (IPTA); 2015 - 2017 President of IPTA. Since 2018 Editor-in-Chief of the journal “Pediatric Transplantation”, the official journal of IPTA.