Pediatric Nephrology

My research interests involve idiopathic nephrotic syndrome in children, unraveling the pathogenesis (Immunomics), prevention of first relapse with combination therapy of prednisolone and levamisole (multicenter, international RCT), pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics (PKPD) of prednisolone and levamisole (LC-MS technique) and the applicability of saliva, HRQoL and parental distress (KLIK website) of children with first episode INS. With Heidelberg Certain working group we investigate the recurrence of nephrotic syndrome after kidney transplantation in children in Europe: risk factors, treatment and outcome. The immunosuppressive treatment of children after kidney transplantation is guided by plasma concentration levels. Overimmunosuppression leads to increased risk of infections and PTLD and underimmunosuppression to rejection and graftfailure. The TTV-TX projects investigates if the level of Torque Teno Virus (with PCR) in blood can be of additional benefit in immunosuppressive dosing. We are also analyzing what happens with the donor anellome in the recipient (Next generation sequencing).