Hiroshima University
Japan
Center for Translational Research in Liver Disease, Humanitas Research Hospital,
Italy
UC San Diego School of Medicine
USA
Westmead Institute for Medical Research, University of Sydney,
Australia
Osaka University
Japan
Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology
China
Tokai University School of Medicine
Japan
Keio University School of Medicine
Japan
National Taiwan University
Taiwan
Chiba University Hospital
Japan
University of California San Diego
USA
Kindai University
Japan
Humanity and Health Medical Center
Hong Kong
The University of Tokyo
Japan
RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences
Japan
RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences
Japan
The University of Tokyo
Japan
Southern Medical University
China
IDIBAPS Research Institute Barcelona
Spain
Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences
India
Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons
USA
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
USA
National Cancer Center
Japan
Harvard Medical School
USA
Position, Director Department of Internal Medicine, Japanese Red Cross Society Himeji Hospital, Himeji, Hyogo,
Japan
Osaka University
Japan
The University of Tokyo
Japan
Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Musashino Red Cross Hospital
Japan
Department of Medicine and Therapeutics The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)
Professor Massimo Colombo is Director of the Center for Translational Research in Liver Disease at Humanitas Research Hospital ,Rozzano Italy.In the past 15 years he has been Chairman of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and Chairman of the Department of Medicine and Liver, Kidney, Lung, Bone Marrow and Organ Transplantation at IRCCS Maggiore Hospital in Milan, Italy. He has also been a Professor of Medicine and Gastroenterology at the University of Milan for more than 25 years. Professor Colombo gained his medical degree from the University of Milan, before completing a residency in gastroenterology at IRCCS Maggiore Hospital.
Subsequently he undertook an international fellowship in liver diseases at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, USA(1974-1975), before returning to IRCCS Maggiore Hospital.
Professor Colombo’s research interests include the diagnosis and treatment of viral hepatitis and liver cancer. A member of many professional societies including EASL, AASLD and several Italian societies, he is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2010 European Association Study Liver (EASL) Recognition Award for outstanding medical and scientific contributions, the Italian Association for the Study of the Liver (AISF) Distinguished Service Award, the Thannhauser Medal Award of the German Society of Gastroenterology and the Nelson Fausto Award of the International Liver Cancer Association(ILCA). Professor Colombo was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Hepatology from 2005–2009 and currently sits of the editorial boards of many hepatology journals,is Special Section Editor of Journal of Hepatology(2015-2019), Strategic Advisor of Editor of Liver International(2015-2019) and contributor of Selected Summary for Gastroenterology(2010-2021).He was Associate Editor of Journal of Hepatology in 1996-2000 and chaired the writing committees of EASL Clinical Practice Guidelines of Benign Liver Tumors in 2014 and of Occupational Liver Diseases in 2017. In September 2016 he was appointed Chairman of EASL International Liver Foundation (Geneva,Switzerland). He has authored 490 original manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals, with an H-index of 91(Google Scholar) and more than 27,000 citations.
Jacob George is the Robert W. Storr Professor of Hepatic Medicine at the Storr Liver Centre, Westmead Institute for Medical Research, University of Sydney and Head of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Westmead Hospital and Director of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Services for the Western Sydney Local Health District. He undertakes basic and clinical research on MAFLD, hepatitis C, liver cancer and hepatic fibrosis. He is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Hepatology, and is on the Editorial Board of Hepatology, Hepatology Communications, Liver International, and the World Journal of Gastroenterology. He was a past Executive Council member and Chair of Research for the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver and is current Chair of the Liver Faculty of the Gastroenterological Society of Australia.
Dr. Lijian Hui obtained his PhD degree from Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology (SIBCB) and had Postdoc training at Institute of Molecular Pathology, and moved back to SIBCB as Principle Investigator at 2008.
Dr. Hui was awarded as 10 Top Breakthroughs in Science and Technology of China by Ministry of Science and Technology of China at 2011, and honored as China Young Scientists Award at 2011, Shanghai Young Science and Technology Elite Award at 2014, Distinguished Contribution of Young Scientist of Shanghai at 2014 and Shanghai Natural Science and Technology Award at 2019.
Professor Jia-Horng Kao is the Chair Professor at the Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine. He is also the sitting President of Advancing Clinical Treatment-Liver Disease (ACT-LD), and an Attending Physician at the Department of Internal Medicine and Chief of the Division of Hepatology/Gastroenterology at the National Taiwan University Hospital. Professor Kao graduated from the College of Medicine National Taiwan University in 1987 and received his Ph.D. from the Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine at the same university in 1994. Professor Kao has been involved in viral hepatitis research for over 2 decades. He was the President of Taiwan Association for the Study of the Liver (TASL) from 2017 to 2019 and the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver in 2012, Director of the Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine from 2009 to 2015, Director of the Hepatitis Research Center at the National Taiwan University Hospital from 2003 to 2009, Secretary General of the Taiwan Association for the Study of the Liver between 2004 and 2005, and Vice Secretary General of the Gastroenterological Society of Taiwan from 2003 to 2006.
Professor Kao's main research interests include the prevention, natural history, molecular virology, pathogenesis and treatment of chronic viral hepatitis and HCC. He has published more than 550 articles with the sum of times cited of 19,430 and h-index of 64 by Web of Science. He also contributed to 9 book chapters and one monograph. With his outstanding academic achievements, he has received several prestigious awards including the Outstanding Research Award from the National Science Council, Taiwan for 3 times (1997, 2000, 2003); Outstanding Research Award for Excellence in Medical Research, National Taiwan University Hospital (2005); Y. Z. Hsu Outstanding Professor Award (2009); Academic Award, Ministry of Education, Executive Yuan (2011); Distinguished Scientific Award, Executive Yuan (2011); Okuda Award, Asian-Pacific Digestive Week (Bangkok, Thailand)/Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology (2012); Outstanding Academic Research Award of Mr. Lee TD's Medical Foundation (2012); Outstanding Research Award of Distinguished Research Fellow, Ministry of Science and Technology (2014), National Chair Professorship, Ministry of Education (2015), AASLD Fellow (2015), NTU Chair Professorship (2016), Outstanding Research Team Award of the National Taiwan University Hospital (2017), Achievement Award of the Liver Disease Prevention and Treatment Research Foundation (2017), Outstanding Research Award of Wang Ming-Ning Foundation (2018), and APASL Okuda-Omata Distinguished Achievement Award (2019).
Professor Kao is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Formosan Medical Association (JFMA), and sits on the editorial board of the GUT, Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics (APT), Journal of Infectious Diseases (JID), and the Clinical Journal of Gastroenterology. He is a reviewer with 117 peer-reviewed journals, including the Lancet, JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Gut, Lancet Infectious Diseases, Nature Reviews Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Journal of Hepatology, American Journal of Gastroenterology, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Journal of Infectious Diseases, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Journal of Viral Hepatitis, Journal of Medical Virology and Kidney International. Professor Kao also serves as the trustee of JGH foundation and the founding member of AASLD Asia Pacific Regional Advisory Council.
Masatoshi Kudo studied Medicine at Kyoto University and graduated in 1978. Following this, he completed a clinical fellowship in Kobe City General Hospital followed by a research fellowship at the University of California Davis Medical Center in USA and Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, where he received his PhD degree in Medical Science in 1987. Professor Kudo is currently a Professor and Chairman at the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Kindai University Faculty of Medicine since 1999 and the Executive Board Member of Kindai University.
Professor Kudo has published 903 International scientific peer review papers in well regarded journals (Total IF=4620.043, H-Index 73) in addition to 928 domestic scientific papers. He has given 398 invited lectures in the area of his expertise on numerous occasions to international audiences. He serves as an Executive Council Board Member for Liver Cancer Study Group of Japan (LCSGJ), Chairman of Nationwide Survey Committee of LCSGJ, and a representative of LCSGJ Head Office. Professor Kudo is also a President of the Japan Society of Ultrasonics in Medicine (JSUM), President of Asia Pacific Primary Liver Cancer Association (APPLE), Past President of WFUMB, President of AFSUMB, an Executive Board Member of Japan Society of Hepatology (JSH), a Founding Board member of International Liver Cancer Association (ILCA). He is also serving as an Editor in Chief of LIVER CANCER (Karger) (IF=5.944).
His research interest is "Diagnosis and treatment of HCC". Professor Kudo is the first author of "Consensus based Practice Guideline of HCC Proposed by Japan Society of Hepatology" published in 2007, 2010 and 2014 revised version.
Dr. George Lau graduated from The Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong in 1987. After graduation, he was recruited by Prof Sir David Todd to be trained in Internal Medicine at the University Department of Medicine, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong. He then obtained his membership from the Royal Colleges of Physician (MRCP) in 1990. In 1992, he received further training in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Stanford University, USA (with the support of Hong Kong-Stanford scholarship). In 1998, he was recommended by Professor Roger Williams to be further trained in translational Hepatology at the Institute of Hepatology, University College of London (supported by Royal Society Award), for his work on adoptive immunity clearance of hepatitis B surface antigen with allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. In 2002, he was promoted to Senior Lecturer and Consultant in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong. At the same year, he was awarded The Most Outstanding Youth in Hong Kong.
In 2005, he became the Global Principal Investigator of pegylated interferon alpha-2a for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) and his work led to the registration of pegylated interferon alpha 2a by the EMA and US FDA. Dr. Lau has more than 500 publications, including New England Journal of Medicine and Lancet, with citation over 10,000. He has also been invited to give numerous lectures in Hepatology throughout the world. Dr Lau had served as the Associate Editor for Journal of Hepatology (official journal of the European Association for the Study of the Liver) and Liver International and is currently reviewer for over 50 international journals. In 2006, he was promoted to full Clinical Professor and assistant Dean, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. He was admitted to Fellow of the Royal College of Physician (London) in 2006. He was also well respected by his peer in academic Hepatology and was elected as 19th President of The Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL) in 2008-2009. With his contribution in the field, he is now life-member of the Steering committee of APASL.
In 2009, he founded and become Chairman and Consultant in Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Humanity and Health Medical Group, Hong Kong. Concurrently, he was appointed as the Director and Chair Professor, Beijing 302-Hong Kong Humanity and Health Liver Diseases and Transplant Center, The Fifth Medical Centre of Chinese People Liberation Army General Hospital, Beijing, China. In 2015, he was made fellow of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. In 2016, he was awarded National Science and Technology Progress Award (State Science and Technology Prizes)- Technological Advancement in Chronic hepatitis B infection management (China). Currently, he serves as the Co-chairman of the APASL HBV guideline committee and panel member of the APASL HCV and HCC guideline committee. In 2019, he was elected to the governance board of The Asian Pacific Digestive Week Federation (APDWF).
Dr. Hidewaki Nakagawa graduated from Osaka University School of Medicine and completed training in clinical oncology of GI cancers and critical care medicine as a surgeon. After obtaining his PhD from Osaka University for hereditary cancer genomics, he had postdoctoral training (1999-2003) of cancer genomics at the Human Cancer Genetics Program, The Ohio State University, USA. In 2003, he returned to Japan as an assistant professor at The University of Tokyo, Institute of Medical Science, where he was dedicated to therapeutic target screening for cancers. In 2008, he moved to RIKEN as a team leader of genomic medicine and his recent research has been focusing on cancer genomics by whole genome sequencing (WGS) for liver cancer and GI cancers. He has been working for large-scale cancer genome sequencing project of liver cancer including ICC and cHCC-CC and immuno-genomics as one of the PIs of International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and its Pan-cancer Whole Genome (PCAWG) project. He is interested in pathogen-cancer genomic interaction, such as HBV integration, and immuno-genomics of liver cancer. He has been also dedicated as a program officer of Biobank/Genomic Medicine Project in Japanese medical funding agent, AMED, to promote human genome research and genomic medicine in Japan and Asia.
Masao Omata, MD, has made an effort to revitalize the APASL (Asian Pacific association for the study of the Liver) with Dr. S. Sarin and others for the last 10 years. He is a Co-Editor in Chief of the Hepatology International, an official journal of APASL. He graduated from Chiba University School of Medicine (Dr. Okuda), and continued his training at Yale University (Dr. G Klaskin) and in the Liver Unit at University of Southern California (Dr. RL Peters). After 6 years in US, he returned to the Department of Medicine at Chiba University in 1989, and started molecular biological study on Hepatitis B virus.
In 1992, he became Chairman of Second Department of International Medicine at University of Tokyo, Japan and then subsequently became chairman of Department of Gastroenterology. Under his leadership, the Department of Gastroenterology had become one of the foremost centers in its field.
Now, he is the president of the two hospitals at Yamanashi, west of Tokyo, where, although scenic place with Mt. Fuji, hepatitis virus infection is epidemic and his homeland. He and his colleague have published 1,190 articles in English Literature including, NEJM 5, Lancet 6, Ann Int Med 6, Hepatology 59, Gastroenterology 43. The total impact factor is 7,701 and 50,664 citations with H-index of 115 as of July 1st, 2019.
Jordi Gracia-Sancho is the Chief of the Liver Vascular Biology Research Group at the IDIBAPS Research Institute, in Barcelona, and at the Department of Biomedical Research - University of Bern in Switzerland. He graduated in Biochemistry receiving undergraduate research training in basic hemochromatosis at the London Metropolitan University, pursued pre-doctoral studies in basic portal hypertension at the University of Barcelona Medical School, and post-doctoral training at the Center for Excellence in Vascular Biology - Harvard Medical School & Brigham and Women's Hospital. In 2012 he obtained the "Ramón y Cajal" Spanish tenure-track position and then promoted to his current senior position.
Jordi's research focuses on liver vascular pathobiology with special interest in the role of sinusoidal cells, and their interactions, in acute and chronic liver diseases, and in aging. He (co-)authored more than 80 peer-reviewed original papers and reviews, currently serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of Hepatology, and previously served as Associate Editor for Frontiers in Medicine and Plos One. In addition, he is invited professor in different universities within Spain and Europe and co-leads different educational initiatives including the LiverSeminars Program and the 2018 EASL-Basic School of Hepatology.
Dr Gracia has been invited speaker in different national and international conferences, including the annual meetings of the European, American and Asian associations of Hepatology. He has been member of the Scientific Committee of the Spanish Association for the Study of the Liver, and the Steering Committee of the Portal Hypertension Special Interest Group of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). In 2016 he received the Young Investigator Award from European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL). Since June 2017 he serves as Scientific Secretary of the International Society for Hepatic Sinusoidal Research (ISHSR).
Prof Shiv Kumar Sarin is the Senior Professor, Hepatology and Director, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS), New Delhi. He was instrumental in setting up the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, under the auspices of the Govt of Delhi. He is also the Director, WHO Collaborative Centre on Chronic Liver diseases and Viral Hepatitis at ILBS. He serves as Adjunct Faculty, Molecular Medicine at JNU due to his deep interest and contributions to translational science. He has more than 600 publications to his credit, edited 13 books on liver diseases and contributed 87 chapters in various medical text books.
He has helped develop 19 major guidelines; including six major Asian Pacific Treatment Guidelines in Liver diseases. He is credited with several new treatment protocols for liver diseases, especially variceal bleeding, liver regeneration, hepatitis B and acute-on-chronic liver failure. Prof. Sarin has shown leadership roles in being the President of the Indian Society of Gastroenterology, Indian Association for the Study of the Liver, Asian Pacific Association of Liver (APASL), and Chairman Steering Committee of the APASL. He has been awarded the prestigious Henry L. Bockus Medal -2017 by World Gastroenterology Organization as also Ralph Kohn Memorial Lecture at the Institute of Hepatology, London, Prof. Telferd Reynold Memorial Oration at the University of Southern California.
He has been bestowed with Padma Bhushan by the Govt of India. He is also a recipient of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award, The World Academy of Medical Sciences (TWAS) International Prize, EASL International Recognition Award, Om Prakash Bhasin Award, Dhanvantri Medical Award, Ranbaxy Medical Sciences Award, and the 'Best Teacher' Award, besides being a founding Editor of Hepatology International. He developed with other Board of Governors the 'Vision 2015' document for Medical Education in India during his tenure as Chairman of Medical Council of India.
| 03/2013 - present | Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons Associate Professor of Medicine |
New York, NY |
| 03/2003 – 02/2013 | Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons Assistant Professor of Medicine at CUMC |
New York, NY |
| 08/2002 – 02/2003 | University of North Carolina Instructor in Medicine |
Chapel Hill, NC |
| 03/1998 | MD (permanent German license) | Munich, Germany |
| 02/1998 | Doctorate in Medicine. | Munich, Germany |
| 12/1996 | MD (temporary German license) | Munich, Germany |
| 09/1995 | USMLE Step 2 (pass) | Rome, Italy |
| 01/1993 – 02/1998 | Doctoral thesis Institute for Immunology, Ludwig-Maximilians- Universität, Munich, Germany, on mechanisms of CD40 activation |
Munich, Germany |
| 09/1992 | USMLE Step 1 (pass) | London, UK |
| 10/1991 – 12/1996 | Medical School, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität | Munich, Germany |
| 02/1990 – 09/1991 | Medical School, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg | Heidelberg, Germany |
| 10/1989 – 01/1990 | Medical School, Ruhr-Universität Bochum | Bochum, Germany |
Gyongyi Szabo, MD, PhD is Faculty Dean at Harvard Medical School and Chief Academic Officer at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a Harvard Teaching hospital in Boston. She is a physician scientist and an internationally known expert in liver immunology and inflammation. Her laboratory studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms of inflammation and innate immunity in liver injury to identify therapeutic targets focused on non-alcoholic liver disease, NASH and alcoholic liver disease. Her investigations recently revealed the importance of micro-RNAs and extracellular vesicles in liver diseases. She showed that exosomes can not only be biomarkers but also vehicles of inter-cellular and inter-organ communication. Her studies identified microRNA-122 as a central player in steatohepatitis and showed that miR-155 regulates exosome release. Earlier, her group discovered that Interferon Regulatory Factor 3 downstream from Toll-like receptor 4 regulates hepatocellular damage and represents a key molecule in alcoholic hepatitis. Dr. Szabo's group made the novel discovery that NLRP3 activation and the IL-1ß pathway are potential therapeutic targets in alcoholic hepatitis and NASH. Her translational studies with the use of IL-1 receptor antagonist in a preclinical model of alcoholic hepatitis provided basis for a subsequent first-time clinical trial in alcoholic hepatitis with IL-1 inhibition. She is the lead investigator on the AlcHeptNet NIH-supported multicenter clinical trial in alcoholic hepatitis. Dr. Szabo's is member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and fellow of the AASLD, AGA and the American College of Physicians (ACP). Dr. Szabo serves on advisory boards of several federal agencies, leading academic institutions and pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Szabo served on the Governing Board and as President of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) in 2015 and she is the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of Hepatology Communications.
Dr. Takehara is a physician scientist in hepatology and gastroenterology and his major research interests include, basic research on cell death and innate immunity and, clinically, viral and non-viral hepatitis, liver fibrosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). He directs and oversees the Osaka Liver Forum (OLF) study, a large cohort study of hepatitis and HCC patients in the Kansai area. Currently, Dr. Takehara is the Director General of JSH and Director of the Japanese Society of Gastroenterology (JSGE). He is to be President of the Annual Meeting of JSH in 2020 and President of the Annual Meeting of JSGE in 2021.
The major interest of my research is the identification of new targets for the therapy of Alcoholic Liver Disease (ALD)- and Non-Alcoholic Liver Disease (NASH)-associated liver fibrosis and HCC. We study the gene expression profiles and epigenetic landscapes of mouse and human hepatic myofibroblasts during development and regression of liver fibrosis. Our most recent work is focused on the role of IL-17 in liver fibrosis and HCC. To translate our findings into patients, our laboratory has obtained extensive experience with isolation and cryopreservation of human hepatocytes, Kupffer cells, and Endothelial Cells from livers declined for transplantation, and generation of xenograft models of HCC and liver fibrosis in mice.
I received my MD at Russian University of Friendship, Moscow. I then studied biochemistry and immunology during my graduate studies at Christian-Albrecht University, Germany. As a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University (USA), I studied signal transduction, and expanded my skills in transgenic mouse technologies. I joined UCSD as a principal investigator.
