Associate ProfessorSonia Saad

I commenced my research interests in progressive renal disease in 2002, shortly after I was awarded my PhD. I have extensive expertise in the physiological and molecular mechanisms of diabetes and progressive kidney disease in animal models and human. I was engaged in multiple clinical research projects related to diabetic kidney disease (DKD) (i.e. Recently completed a phase I clinical study; ToGeTher study; ACTRN12618001391268). I co-authored 130 manuscripts in total (3 additional manuscripts are accepted or under review). Most of my manuscripts are published in highly ranked journals. My work was cited over 4000 x. My i10 index (papers ? 10 citations in the last 5 years) is 82 and my Total Field Weight Citation is 79.81. To date my research has attracted > $6.5M from competitive grant schemes, industrial investment and philanthropic sources. Three records of inventions were recently submitted to the university as an outcome of my research with 2 provisional patent applications (APN 2023900913 & APN 2023900914) related to the development of novel non-invasive tools to i) diagnose patients with early CKD and progressive kidney disease; ii) predict kidney outcomes post transplantation. The outcomes of my research have been acknowledged on important medical networks and press reports and was the subject of multiple distinction in scholarship awards from the American Physiology Society. I was involved in demonstrating that fluctuating glucose levels has an adverse effect on renal pathology which importantly contributed to the implementation of a new policy for monitoring postprandial glucose levels in diabetic patients. I was amongst the first in the world to demonstrate the importance of fetal programming in early onset metabolic disorders and CKD progression which received multiple distinction in scholarship awards from the American/Physiological society and has fundamentally changed our understanding on the origin of CKD demonstrating that intervention during pregnancy can reduce the risk of CKD in the offspring at adulthood. This new concept has been recognized across multiple countries; adopted by different field of research; cited by journals with high impacts e.g. Nature and consensus documents for actions; disseminated via multiple media interviews (Australia and Europe) and data was reported in 6 press releases. My work on E-cigarettes and metabolic/kidney disease was presented to Mr Brad Hazzard (NSW Health Minister) and was instrumental in including E-cigarettes in the Smoke-free Environment Amendment Bill, 2018.

I have supervised 16 PhD students and 7 Master students to completion and have been involved in supervising medical students completing research programs. Most of my postgraduate students submit by publications and all have had very successful careers post-graduation and received multiple awards. I received different teaching awards from the Dean of Medicine and recently the prestigious HDR Supervisor award.

I am regularly invited to present my work in local and international meetings. I recently acted as a Keynote Symposium speaker and Opening speaker for multiple meetings such as the Endocrine Society meetings, The Asian Pacific Congress of Nephrology (2021 at Thailand); Australian Diabetes Society Congress (2020).Australian Physiological Society Meeting (2021 at Gold Coast).Global Webinar Endocrinology and Diabetes (2022); Global Summit on Nephrology, Urology and Kidney Transplantation (2022 at Zurich, Switzerland) as well as the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nephrology Meeting (New Zealand 2023 and 2024) and the Australian Lebanese Medical Association Meeting (2025). I have acted as a committee chair of the New Horizons conference for 15 years which involved 4 research institutes (the University of Sydney, The University of Technology Sydney, The Woolcock Institute and Charles Perkins Centre). I secured ~$300K from commercial sponsors to support this conference and provide research and travel awards for students. The educational, translational and commercial leverage that has resulted from this meeting at a national and international level (for example the establishment of the SPARK Sydney program in collaboration with Stanford University School of Medicine, USA) attest for my leadership ability. I received an eminent contribution award from the Director of SPARK to recognize my efforts. I acted as an organizing committee member for the international obesity conference (Netherlands) and for the ESM in Diabetes and Endocrinology meeting, Brisbane in 2018 and 2019.

I am a member of the Scientific Staff Council, an active member of the Education and Research Training Committee of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nephrology (Leader of the Gender Equity, Diversity and Inclusiveness Liaison), a member of the Science Advisory Board, a Co-Chair of the Leadership Committee-Cardiovascular and Renal Priority Research Area, Kolling Research Strategy group. Iam also a panel member of the Australian Diabetes Clinical Trials Network (ADCTN). I am involved in the Kolling Research Strategy Meetings andhave been involved in the decision making related to research support services and research infrastructure at the Kolling Institute and the allocation of the Ramsay Research and Teaching Fund. I acted as a panel member and reviewer for NHMRC project grants. I was also a medical panel member,Lebanese Diaspora Energy conference Oceaniain 2019 which included government representatives, the Minister of foreign affairs and over 500 people from the community. I acted as a member of the International Relish Consortium of Pubmed and have contributed to the development a new search engine (My role was acknowledged in Nature 549, 31;7 Sept 2017).

I also acted as an Associate Editor for Nutrients and currently a Board member for Nutrients, a Board member and Associate Editor for Frontiers in Endocrinology-Obesity, an Associate Editor for Frontiers in Medicine and Editor for Translational Metabolic Syndrome Research. I also acted as Senior Editor for the clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology Journal, a Reviewer Editor for Frontiers in Endocrinologyand a guest editor for the Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology.

I am a regular reviewer of Inter/national grants submitted to NHMRC (Idea and Investigator grants), DART, Diabetes UK, Dutch Kidney foundation, Kolff Grants (Netherlands), National Kidney Foundation (Hungary) and to the National Science Centre (Poland) and American University of Sharjah, UAE. I am currently leading my research group, and is the intellectual and innovative driver of my research program which aims to understand the origins of diabetic kidney disease and the mechanisms of its development. In addition, my group continues to explore novel non-invasive tools to diagnose CKD at an early stage as well as progressive disease, and determine novel drug targets.