Beyond the Textbook: The National Course for Renal Fellows

Author: Dr. Mark Zeidel

We have had the privilege of running the National Course for Renal Fellows: Origins of Renal Physiology since 2008, completing 16 courses in total (we missed one year due to COVID). The original design for the courses, with the tight integration of experiments, report-outs and hiking, biking, and kayaking in Acadia National Park, was developed by the late John Forrest for a course initially offered to Yale medical students. John taught with distinction in our course for many years and helped us adapt his design to the needs of our fellows. We have been enormously fortunate to work with an outstanding faculty whose expertise and devotion to teaching have been unmatched. Every year trainees come to us from across the country and abroad, with enormous curiosity and enthusiasm to learn. The course includes 6 – 7 modules, and each trainee gets hands-on experience with three of these modules. Course participants report out their results to each other, so each trainee learns a good deal about all of the modules. We alternate lab days with report-out days, leaving every other afternoon free for hiking, biking, and kayaking in the national park. This schedule allows the fellows an opportunity to get to know the world-class faculty and each other in both the laboratory setting and during their “leisure time” in the park.

We included “Origins” in the course title because so much of our current understanding of kidney function was discovered at the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratories (MDIBL), including the ability to measure glomerular filtration, the mechanisms of tubular transport and the function of several parts of the nephron. We started the course to re-connect fellows with the basic physiology and the rich history of our field. We were also concerned that modern trainees may have little to no contact with laboratory science early in their careers and may have missed the pleasure of discovering scientific truths through experiments.

We owe an enormous debt to the NIH and ASN for supporting the course, to the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratories for hosting us so well each year, and to all of the wonderful faculty members and trainees who make the course hum with excitement year after year. Enrollment is now open for the upcoming course, offered from August 30th to September 6th, 2025. As the course is funded by the NIH, there is no tuition or cost for meals and lodging. Due to high demand, please sign up soon if you are interested in joining us!

I will leave you with a view of the MDIBL dock from the deck of the cottage I stay in while running the course. Hope to see you this summer.

All the best,

Mark L. Zeidel

Course Director