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This Article Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: ASN.2006121381v1 18/3/677    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content

In Memoriam: Fokke Johannes van der Woude 1953–2006

Fokke Johannes van der Woude (1953–2006): Member of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Nephrologie and the Gesellschaft für Nephrologie.

The International, Dutch, and German nephrologic communities lost an outstanding scientist, clinician, educator, and friend with the death of Fokke van der Woude (Figure 1) on December 4, 2006, after a protracted illness. Fokke was born in Leeuwarden, Holland, and finished his medical studies in Groningen in 1977. There, he was a resident in internal medicine and soon joined the nephrology group for additional training. Fokke completed a doctoral thesis on immune complexes in glomerulonephritis and vasculitis, which led to his selection by the Dutch Kidney Foundation for a fellowship in the United States with Alfred Michael in Minneapolis, MN. After returning to The Netherlands, Fokke was responsible for nephrologic management of the kidney and pancreas transplantation program in Leiden. In 1995, Fokke was called to head the nephrology department at the University of Heidelberg in Mannheim as full professor and chairman. This position is remarkable in that the department was founded by Franz Volhard, who together with Theodor Fahr classified renal diseases in 1914 as we now know them. Fokke led that department for 12 yr in a manner that would have delighted Franz Volhard. The clinical care that was rendered to patients with kidney and other diseases, the quality of the teaching program, and the scientific output made Mannheim a leading program in German nephrology that attracted international attention and recognition. Fokke had something else in common with Franz Volhard: The violin. Fokke listed the violin as a hobby; however, he pursued this hobby at the music conservatory in Groningen; some hobby!

Fokke published more than 300 scientific papers on numerous topics in nephrology. He had a broad range of interests and was scientifically good at many things. He served as a member of the Editorial Board of JASN from 1998 to 2001. Two works in particular serve as "bookends" to his academic career. Of his 13 contributions to The Lancet, the first (1) concerned autoantibodies against neutrophils and monocytes. The recognition of these anti–neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA) ushered in a new era in nephrology. Suddenly, "Wegener’s granulomatosis" ceased to be an obscure curiosity that was diagnosable only through biopsy and became instead ANCA-associated vasculitis. The disease could now be diagnosed serologically and its activity monitored accordingly. More important, our knowledge of the mechanisms that are responsible for this disease spectrum rests on 20 yr of research on ANCA. The other paper that frames Fokke’s career concerns diabetic nephropathy, a subject that Fokke pursued doggedly for decades. He and associates mapped diabetic nephropathy to a gene locus on chromosome 18q22.3 to 23 in a large Turkish kindred in whom the phenotypes type 2 diabetes and nephropathy occurred commonly (2). Cloning genes for complex traits on the basis of linkage mapping is no trivial undertaking and has been only occasionally successful. Fokke’s team identified a leucine repeat in the gene that encodes carnosinase (CNDP1) as a protective factor for diabetic nephropathy (3). The remarkable paper contained mechanistic studies that will open a further research arena.

Fokke’s contributions extend far beyond scientific discovery. A year after coming to Germany, Fokke and his wife, Riet, "double handedly" founded the Deutsche Nierenstiftung. Fokke persistently pointed out that the Americans had their National Kidney Foundation, the Dutch had their Kidney Foundation, but the Germans had nothing of the sort. Riet and Fokke founded the Deutsche Nierenstiftung. The organization sponsors a renal week that is dedicated to increasing public awareness of kidney diseases and works diligently to sponsor educational fellowships and grants for trainees. This endeavor has been a mammoth contribution to German nephrology.

Above all, Fokke was a teacher. His interest in his students and trainees was boundless. His proudest grant acquisition was an international program project that was sponsored by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. This combined endeavor between the University of Groningen and the University of Heidelberg is based on a series of scientific projects. Each project sponsors doctoral and postdoctoral students who spend time at the University of Groningen and the University of Heidelberg doing research. This so-called Graduiertenkolleg is a resounding success.

"There are men and classes of men that stand above the common herd; the soldier, the sailor, and the shepherd not infrequently; the artist rarely; rarer still, the clergymen; the physician almost as a rule." So spoke Robert Louis Stevenson, whose 19th century observations stem from a time when physicians were esteemed but could do little; today, the converse seems to be the case for both. Fokke van der Woude stands above the common herd of physicians. It was a privilege to have him, and we miss him.

	Footnotes

 
Members of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Nephrologie and the Gesellschaft für Nephrologie

	References

Top References

 

1. van der Woude FJ, Rasmussen N, Lobatto S, Wiik A, Permin H, van Es LA, van der Giessen M, van der Hem GK, The TH: Autoantibodies against neutrophils and monocytes: Tool for diagnosis and marker of disease activity in Wegener’s granulomatosis. Lancet 1 : 425 –429, 1985[Medline]
2. Vardarli I, Baier LJ, Hanson RL, Akkoyun I, Fischer C, Rohmeiss P, Basci A, Bartram CR, van der Woude FJ, Janssen B: Gene for susceptibility to diabetic nephropathy in type 2 diabetes maps to 18q22.3-23. Kidney Int 62 : 2176 –2183, 2002[CrossRef][Medline]
3. Janssen B, Hohenadel D, Brinkkoetter P, Peters V, Rind N, Fischer C, Rychlik I, Cerna M, Romzova M, de Heer E, Baelde H, Bakker SJ, Zirie M, Rondeau E, Mathieson P, Saleem MA, Meyer J, Koppel H, Sauerhoefer S, Bartram CR, Nawroth P, Hammes HP, Yard BA, Zschocke J, van der Woude FJ: Carnosine as a protective factor in diabetic nephropathy: Association with a leucine repeat of the carnosinase gene CNDP1. Diabetes 54 : 2320 –2327, 2005[Abstract/Free Full Text]

This Article Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: ASN.2006121381v1 18/3/677    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content