New Horizons in Nephrology: Glomerular Disease 2026: Therapeutic Advances and Targeted Approaches

New Horizons in Nephrology: Glomerular Disease 2026: Therapeutic Advances and Targeted Approaches is organized by Penn Medicine - Continuing Medical and Interprofessional Education and will be held on Sep 18, 2026 at Smilow Center for Translational Research, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America.

Description:
Glomerular disease is associated with morbidity and mortality in patients of all ages and is a common cause of end stage kidney disease. These include those that are commonly present with nephrotic syndrome (minimal change disease, FSGS and membranous nephropathy), the nephritic syndrome (vasculitis, lupus nephritis and IgA nephropathy), among others. Treatment often utilizes immunosuppressive regimens such as high dose corticosteroids, alkylating agents, calcineurin inhibitors, biologics and antimetabolites, which can be associated with significant side effects and morbidity. Thus, glomerular diseases present a difficult and unique challenge to both patients and nephrologists and are associated with high treatment costs and historically, have had poor renal outcomes. There have been significant recent advances in the field in both the diagnosis and treatment of glomerular diseases as well as in targeted therapies. Therefore, it is important for physicians to stay current with these new approaches to managing glomerular diseases. These therapeutic approaches are targeting previously known pathways like B-cell, complement and endothelin pathway. A refresher on the role of these pathways clarifies the role of these newly approved therapies.

Objectives:
After completing this activity, participants should be able to:

1. Evaluate surrogate endpoints in glomerular diseases and apply them to assess treatment efficacy and trial design in clinical practice
2. Identify and differentiate novel-non-immunological and targeted therapeutic approaches (including B-cell and complement pathway modulators) for managing glomerular diseases, and incorporate them into patient treatment strategies
3. Describe the pathophysiology of podocytopathies (including minimal change disease and FSGS) IgA nephropathy, ANCA vasculitis, complement-mediated diseases (C3G, IC-MPGN, aHUS), lupus nephritis, and membranous nephropathy
4. Integrate recent genetic insights to guide diagnosis and personalized management of glomerular diseases
5. Analyze clinical cases of glomerular disease presentations, incorporating renal pathology findings, genetic testing results, and emerging biomarkers to formulate accurate differential diagnoses and evidence-based treatment plans
6. Compare and contrast current and investigational therapies for glomerular diseases, and discuss how to select appropriate patients for novel agents or clinical trials based on the latest mechanistic and outcome data.