Professor Liz Lightstone

Liz Lightstone is Professor of Renal Medicine in the Centre for Inflammatory Disease, Department of Immunology & Inflammation in the Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, and an Honorary Consultant Renal Physician in the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust Renal and Transplant Centre (ICHNT RTC).   Having started out in basic research undertaking a PhD in Immunology funded by the MRC and an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship, Prof Lightstone’s research is now focused on Lupus Nephritis, as well as Pregnancy in Women with Kidney Disease. Together with colleagues in the ICHNT RTC, she pioneered the use of steroid-minimising regimens in lupus nephritis. She is particularly interested in developing better ways of predicting outcomes, not least by improving adherence to therapy and using an ‘omics approach to analyzing renal biopsies. She is also recognized for her wider expertise in glomerulonephritis and is now the global co-chair, along with Prof Dan Cattran, of the SONG-GD initiative which aims, with healthcare professionals and patients, to define core outcome criteria to be included in all studies of GD. She is particularly involved in work ensuring the patient voice is heard both in research and clinical settings.  She has contributed to several guidelines on the management of lupus nephritis and is currently helping writing the updated guidelines from the British Society of Rheumatology. She was the inaugural National Coordinator of the UK Pregnancy and Chronic Kidney Disease Rare Disease group and pioneered the use of tacrolimus in the treatment of lupus nephritis in pregnancy and demonstrated its safety for women with lupus nephritis who are breastfeeding. She is joint author on the first Renal Association Guideline on the Pregnancy and CKD published in 2019 and has published extensively on the management and outcomes of pregnancy in women with glomerular disease, in particular lupus nephritis. Clinically, she jointly manages a combined renal/rheumatology lupus clinic following over 400 patients with LN and she established and runs a renal obstetric clinic and a pre-pregnancy counselling clinic & her advice is sought nationally and internationally for the management of challenging cases in these areas.

I am a nephrologist with a specialist interest in inflammatory conditions of the kidney, glomerulonephritis and tubulointerstitial nephritis; I am considered a world authority on lupus (SLE) affecting the kidneys (lupus nephritis) having published extensively in this area, developed novel steroid sparing treatment approaches and advised and run / contributed to randomised controlled trials and guidelines. I am also a leading authority on the management of women with kidney disease who are planning or who are pregnancy. I have led a great deal of research in this area, am coauthor of the recently published guidelines and my advice is sought nationally and internationally. I have a long standing interest in health inequalities and chronic kidney diseaes in the BAME community. I am happy to consult on the diagnosis management of chronic kidney disease including that due to diabetes.