ERA Curatorium Award for Young Investigators to Anne-Laure Faucon
The European Renal Association (ERA) just announced that Dr. Anne-Laure Faucon will receive the “ERAC Award for Young Investigators – Young Nephrologist”. The prize is awarded to a young nephrologist/researcher who has made a scientific contribution in the field of nephrology.
The award consists of a prize of EUR 10.000 that Anne-Laure Faucon will receive at the 62nd Congress of the European Renal Association in Vienna 4-7 June, 2025.
Dr Anne-Laure Faucon is a nephrologist and researcher in renal epidemiology, currently working at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet. She has a clinical training in nephrology and renal physiology, and a research training in both basic sciences and clinical epidemiology (Paris-Saclay University, France).
Anne-Laure Faucon was recently made Laureate of the French National Academy of Medicine for her work in renal physiology.
Tell us a little bit about your research.
“My research aims to contribute to a better understanding of chronic kidney disease (CKD) across its different etiologies, risk factors, stages of severity, and to identify factors associated with disease progression, complications and related diseases. My research also aims to contribute to better characterize the prognosis of CKD, and to assess real-life clinical management associated with improved outcomes in the patients. To study these different research questions, I bridge several fields, including clinical nephrology, physiology, and epidemiology-biostatistics applied to kidney research. I apply state-of-the-art causal inference methods to different sources of large healthcare cohort and registry data, including clinical cohorts (the French NephroTest and CKD-REIN cohorts), the CKD registry (Swedish Renal Registry, SRR), the general population registry (Stockholm CREAtinine Measurement [SCREAM] project), and I recently gathered all the histopathological data from kidney biopsies performed in Sweden since 1980 (SKIP, Swedish KIdney Pathology cohort) and linked this repository to the Swedish Renal Registry and other national registries to obtain longitudinal information on socio-demographics, interaction with healthcare, medications, and vital status.”
How do you see research and clinical work?
“To me, research and clinical practice are not work, they are a true passion. They complement each other, where clinical practice provides insights into the patients’ needs and different challenges, and research helps to identify best clinical management to improve patient care. I am grateful and proud to be part of a large network of fantastic nephrologists and researchers. We all have a common goal: to contribute to move research forward and better understand kidney diseases in order to improve clinical management of patients with kidney disease, and to continue to serve our patients and their families.”
How does it feel to receive the ERA award?
“I am still overwhelmed, but I am very honored and grateful. There are many European researchers who deserve this prize. This prize is definitely the result of teamwork, and I would like to thank all my colleagues in the group at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Karolinska Institutet, all the nephrologists and researchers from the Department of Renal Medicine, from CLINTEC and from the Swedish Renal Registry, my French colleagues at the Department of Clinical Epidemiology, INSERM, Paris who transmitted to me the passion for research in nephrology, but also my family and friends for their support. Research is teamwork and I really would like to acknowledge them with regards to this prize,” says Anne-Laure Faucon.