Pediatric Nephrology Researcher Aidan Porter, MD, Presenting at ESPN 2026 Annual Meeting

Aidan Porter, MD, assistant professor, Division of Pediatric Nephrology at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, will present research at the 58th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Paediatric Nephrology (ESPN), taking place Sept. 30 to Oct. 3, 2026, in Bordeaux, France.

Dr. Porter's presentation, "An Endoplasmic Reticulum Molecular Chaperone, GRP170, Protects Against Podocyte Injury," was selected for the Focused Oral Communications – Genetics 1 scientific session on October 1 from 9:50 to 10:40 a.m.

Dr. Porter’s coauthors include Hannah Vorndran, Allison Marciszyn, Anuradha Ramesh, Thomas Kleyman, Roderick Tan, Jeffrey Brodsky, and Teresa Buck.

The annual ESPN meeting brings together pediatric nephrologists, physician-scientists, and researchers from around the world to present new clinical and basic science research focused on kidney disease in infants, children, and adolescents.

More About Dr. Porter

Dr. Porter's research focuses on understanding the cellular mechanisms that drive kidney injury and identifying potential therapeutic targets to prevent or lessen damage before it becomes irreversible. Much of his work examines how cells respond to stress within the endoplasmic reticulum, particularly the unfolded protein response and molecular chaperones such as GRP170, to better understand why kidney cells survive or die following acute injury.

By defining these underlying molecular pathways, his research aims to identify new strategies that could ultimately lead to targeted therapies for acute kidney injury, a condition for which no treatments exist.