Dr David Wheeler (Panel Co-ordinator)
David Wheeler is a nephrologist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, UK. Together with 5 other colleagues he shares responsibility for the care of approximately 600 patients on dialysis and the long-term follow-up of almost 500 renal transplant recipients. He graduated from Birmingham Medical School in 1980 and subsequently trained in Nephrology in Leicester, London, Cardiff and Boston, including 4 years in basic research. His interests include the mechanisms of progressive renal injury, the consequences of hyperlipidaemia complicating renal disease and the prevention and management of cardiovascular diseases in patients with chronic renal failure.

Dr Charlie Tomson
Qualified in medicine in Oxford in 1981. Senior House Officer rotation in Nottingham 1982-1984; Registrar rotation in Newcastle upon Tyne 1984-1986. Research registrar on a Wellcome-funded project into hyperoxalaemia in chronic renal failure 1986-1987, resulting in a D.M. from Oxford awarded 1991. MRC Training Fellowship 1987, attempting to refine echocardiographic measurement of cardiac function in renal patients using end-systolic indices to allow for the influence of abnormal loading conditions.

Moved from Newcastle to Leicester in 1988 to work as Lecturer in Medicine at the Leicester Royal Infirmary and subsequently in the Regional Renal Unit at Leicester General Hospital. Moved to a Consultant post at St Barts' Hospital London in 1991 and then to Southmead Hospital Bristol in 1993.

Now a full-time NHS clinician with a research interest in the causes and prevention of cardiovascular disease in patients with renal impairment. Secretary of the Renal Association Standards and Audit Subcommittee. Organiser of the Renal Association Advanced Nephrology Course. Member of the Renal Association Training, Education, and Research Subcommittee and Renal Association representative on the Royal College of Physicians Continuing Professional Development Advisory Group.

Dr George Mellotte
Currently Consultant Nephrologist, to St James's Hospital and to The Adelaide and Meath Hospital, in Dublin. Also Lecturer in Nephrology, Trinity College, University of Dublin. Qualified from the Medical School, National University of Ireland, Galway. Trained in nephrology in The Meath Hospital, Dublin, St Helier Hospital, Surrey and St. George's Hospital, London. Obtained an M. Sc. in Biochemistry from King's College London. Research interests include erythropoietin and iron metabolism.

Renal Practitioner Althea Mahon
Althea Mahon has been Lecturer/Practitioner for the Renal Unit at King's College Hospital, London since June 1998. She is currently the Course Leader for the ENB 136 Renal Nursing Clinical Award and was instrumental in setting up a Solid Organ Transplant course at King's College. Prior to this, she was a Sister in the Renal Unit at the Royal London Hospital.

She initially trained as a registered nurse in Western Australia in 1988 before undertaking a BSc in Nursing for which she was awarded a Higher Distinction in 1997; she is now in the second year of an MSc in Nursing. Althea is the current UK Key member for the EDTNA/ERCA, and her research interest is sexual and erectile dysfunction in renal patients.

Professor Stephen Powis
Stephen Powis is Professor of Renal Medicine and Director of the Centre for Nephrology at the Royal Free Campus of the Royal Free and University College Medical School of University College London. He studied pre?clinical Medicine at Glasgow University where he also obtained a First Class Honours B.Sc. in Immunology. He then completed his clinical training at St. John's College, Oxford, graduating B.M. B.Ch. in 1985. Professor Powis became an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellow in 1990, and subsequently obtained his Ph.D. whilst working in the Human Immunogenetics Laboratory of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. He was appointed Senior Lecturer in Renal Medicine at UMDS, Guy's Hospital in 1995, before moving to the Royal Free in 1997.

Professor Powis's main area of expertise is the genetics and biology of the human major histocompatibility complex (MHC or HLA region), the region of the genorne that encodes the major transplantation antigens. The MHC also contains genes encoding a variety of other immune system proteins, and is associated with susceptibility to a large number of human diseases such as diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. Other ongoing transplant research projects within his laboratory include work on pancreatic islet cell transplantation and studies of cytokine expression during the rejection of renal transplants.

J Graeme Jackson (Managing editor)
Graeme is a freelance journalist who currently specialises in medicine and computers, although he has worked on magazines in industries as diverse as kitchens, health & safety and construction.

During a 20-year career, he has held positions, which have equipped him with the skills, needed successfully to edit and write for printed publications: kills he is now transferring to the new medium of Web-based publishing. These have included publisher/Editor on the weekly magazine, Optometry Today, Senior Clinical Reporter on Doctor and Hospital Doctor newspapers, Managing Editor/Editor of Geriatric Medicine and Medical Digest, Managing Editor of Anaesthetic Annotations and Musculoskeletal Medicine, and Assistant Editor of the computer industry's Channel Business.

Graeme has a BSc in physiology from St Andrews University, a diploma in dietetics from The Queen's College, Glasgow, and is a State Registered Dietician.