Webinar Series - Clinical and translational advances in gastroenterology

Laila Aldars-Garcia

Laila Aldars-Garcia (HULP-UAM) – Postdoctoral Researcher. She has a degree in Nutrition, Food Science and Technology from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Spain) and she continued her training in health sciences by taking the Official Master's Degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain). She completed her doctoral thesis at the University of Lleida (Spain) where she focused on microbiology, as well as on the design of predictive models. During her PhD she had the opportunity to work at Cranfield University (UK). During her research career she has specialised in microbiology and in recent years she has focused on the study of gut microbiota. Since 2020, Dr. Laila Aldars-García has been working in Dr. Javier P. Gisbert's group at the Hospital de La Princesa in Madrid investigating the microbiome and metabolome of patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease using metagenomic and metabolomic approaches.

Marianna Arvanitaki

Marianna Arvanitakis finished her medical degree in 1997 in Brussels, Université libre de Bruxelles, and pursued her fellowship in Internal Medicine/Gastroenterology. She has been working in the Erasme University Hospital since 2002, where she has the position of Full Professor since 2018. She is head of the Clinic of Pancreatology and Clinical Nutrition. She presented a PhD thesis focused on the diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic diseases in 2007. Her main clinical and research interest are pancreatic diseases, clinical nutrition, and therapeutic endoscopy. She has had an active role in the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) Governing Board as the individual member representative since 2014 and as the chair of the Education Committee since 2018. She has been part of numerous ESGE guidelines and is on the Editorial Board of the journal Endoscopy. She is also a member of the UEG Scientific Committee since 2014 and chair of the postgraduate teaching (PGT) course. She is also an active member of the European Society of Enteral and Parenteral Nutrition (ESPEN), of the American Gastroenterology Association (AGA) and the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE).

Vincenzo Cardinale

Vincenzo Cardinale is an Associate Professor of Gastroenterology at Sapienza Università di Roma. In 2005 he graduated in Medicine and Surgery at Sapienza University of Rome, under the mentorship of Prof. Domenico Alvaro, who continues to mentor him. He discovered stem/progenitor cell niches in the biliary trees and studied their role in regeneration, liver diseases, diabetes, and malignancies. Following his investigations, biliary research has been revisited. His pioneering studies have been recognized and confirmed in multidisciplinary settings delivering advances in primary sclerosing cholangitis, cholangiocarcinoma, non-anastomotic biliary strictures, and biliary diseases with pancreatic counterparts. His investigations on niches of stem/progenitor cells in the biliary tree, pancreas and duodenum open ground-breaking perspectives in regenerative medicine. Dr Cardinale is currently coordinating a pan-European network to fight cholangiocarcinoma (COST Action CA18122).

Daniela De Biase

Daniela De Biase is an Associate Professor at Sapienza Università di Roma (Hab. Full Professor). She teaches Biochemistry (12 CFU) to students of the Health area: Medicine (including International Medical School, fully taught in English) and Midwifery. She is Erasmus Coordinator of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine (medical area), and a member of CIVIS Health Hub Council and CIVIS WP6 (Task Force Mobility). She is on the teachers’ board of the PhD course in Life Sciences. Her scientific interests are at the crossroad between microbiology, biochemistry and biotechnology. She is an expert on microbial responses to acid stress relying on glutamate/glutamine and leading to GABA production/release. She is recently moving her research interest also to the study of the human microbiota. Vice-chair of a COST Action CA18113 (https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA18113; 2019-2023). Associate Editor for Frontiers in Microbiology, Microbial Physiology and Metabolism Section.

Pierre Deltenre

Pierre Deltenre is “Maître de Conférence” at Université libre de Bruxelles. Pierre Deltenre is Specialist in Hepatology. He completed his medical training at the University of Louvain in Belgium in 1997. He undertook a research fellowship in Professor Valla’s unit at Beaujon Hospital in Clichy in France between 1996 and 1997. Between 1999 and 2013, he was a consultant in CHRU of Lille, France in the team of Professor Mathurin. He achieved his PhD in Erasme Hospital (Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium) in 2012. He worked in Lausanne University Hospital between 2013 and 2017 where he became Assistant Professor. He is now working in the unit of Hepato-Gastroenterology in Clinique Saint-Luc, Namur, and as a consultant in the Department of Hepatology and Gastroenterology of Erasme University Hospital, Brussels, Belgium. He has published more than 120 articles in prominent journals including Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Gut and Journal of Hepatology. His main research interests are complications of cirrhosis and Hepatitis C virus infection.

Olatz Lopez-Fernandez

Olatz Lopez-Fernandez is a health psychologist researcher in the University Hospital Fundación Jiménez Díaz, a teaching hospital associated with the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (Spain). Her expertise is in clinical psychology and applied research developing and managing projects to promote the detection, follow up, and prevention of traditional and emerging health diseases through innovative technologies and methods. She places her work on the educational and healthcare arena from a psychological and humanistic perspective, such as addictions or oncologic problems. She has led projects within the European Commission and the European Parliament and collaborates with many other local and national projects in Spain.

Javeir P. Gisbert

Javeir P. Gisbert (HULP-UAM) – Specialist in Gastroenterology (Senior Consultant), Chief of Section and Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Unit at La Princesa University Hospital, Madrid, Spain. Past-President of the Spanish Inflammatory Bowel Disease Group (GETECCU). Spanish representative/past-President of the European Helicobacter and Microbiota Study Group. Doctor (PhD), Magister in Methodology in Clinical Investigation, and Tenure Professor. Speaker at >200 conferences.>1,000 articles published in journals. Coordinator/Principal Investigator in >250 Research Projects. Member of 15 Medical Societies. Expert reviewer for 28 Scientific Organizations. International Editor of the Cochrane Collaboration. Reviewer for >300 scientific journals. Member of the Editorial Board of >15 journals.

Gratiela (Pircalabioru) Gradisteanu

Gratiela (Pircalabioru) Gradisteanu (University of Bucharest) – Senior Researcher at the Research Intitute of University of Bucharest (ICUB), she teaches Medical Microbiology (6 ECTS) and New targets for developing antimicrobial agents (5 ECTS) to Master Students at the Faculty of Biology. She is a member of the CIVIS Health Hub Council. Her research interests include microbiome changes in diabetes and metabolic syndrome, in vivo and ex-vivo investigation of host-pathogen crosstalk during the infectious process, oxidative stress in health and disease, assessment of the antimicrobial activity of novel antimicrobial compounds, SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic and omic technologies. She coordinates the microbiome analysis platform at ICUB.

Héctor Guadalajara

Héctor Guadalajara (FJD-UAM) – He is chairman of Surgery at University Hospital Fundación Jimenez Díaz and Associate Professor at Universidad Autonoma de Madrid since 2014. He is mainly a Colorectal Surgeon participating in 250 procedures per year, with a special dedication to robotic colorectal surgery and proctology. Product of this medical activity he is one of the world pioneers of the stem cell therapy for fistula in Crohn disease, and provide his expertise to Takeda Company worldwide. Another very important aspect of his career is University teaching and innovation in education. He is one of the main promoters of “Operemos.es”. “Operemos.es” is a contact network that facilitates education to students and people willing to learn technical manoeuvres. As chairman of Surgery, he has been involved in the automatization of the surgical worklist at Quirónsalud, a project that has significantly increased the surgical yields in the Operation Room. And finally, he has been committed to health care humanization implementing sharing decision tools.

Thierry Gustot

Thierry Gustot (Université libre de Bruxelles) – Thierry Gustot is professor and clinical director of the Liver Transplant Unit at CUB Hôpital Erasme, Brussels, Belgium. He is senior researcher at the Laboratory of Experimental Gastroenterology at Université Libre de Bruxelles and at the Inserm U1149, Centre de Recherche sur l’Inflammation, Paris, France. He is Vice Chairman of the governing board of the EASL-Clif Consortium. He contributed to multiple international collaborative projects (CHANCE, NCT04613921; DECISION H2020, 847949). He is the author and co-author of more than 100 peer-review publications in high-ranked journals (Journal of Hepatology, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, New Engl J Med). He is co-Editor of JHEP Reports and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Hepatology and Liver Transplantation.  

Alia Hadefi

Alia Hadefi (Université libre de Bruxelles) - Alia Hadefi obtained her medical degree in 2012 at Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB, Belgium) and was a board-certified gastroenterologist in 2018. She started a PhD in the field of translational research regarding endoscopic bariatric and metabolic therapy (EBMTs) and NAFLD. She is currently working as Fonds Erasme fellow researcher at IRIBHM lab and the laboratory of experimental gastroenterology (ULB). Her main research topics are about EBMTs, NAFLD and nutrition. She is currently working in the department of gastroenterology at Erasme hospital. She is a member of the Young Talent Group and the Young Talent Pool of UEG.

Claire Liefferinckx

Claire Liefferinckx (Université libre de Bruxelles) – Claire Liefferinckx obtained her medical degree in 2014 at Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB, Belgium). She worked as an FNRS fellow researcher at the laboratory of experimental gastroenterology (ULB) and obtained her PhD thesis in 2019. Her main research topics are about the pharmacokinetics of biologics used in Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), the genetics underlying the severity of IBD and the involvement of microbiota in these diseases. She obtained an FNRS post-doctoral fellowship (2019-2022) to investigate the involvement of microbiota in the severity of IBD. In parallel, she works in the department of gastroenterology at Erasme hospital. She is a member of Scicom in the BIRD.

Christophe Moreno

Christophe Moreno (Université libre de Bruxelles) – Christophe Moreno is Professor and Clinical Director of the Liver Unit in the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatopancreatology and Digestive Oncology in CUB Hôpital Erasme since 2012. He is senior researcher at the Laboratory of Experimental Gastroenterology at Université Libre de Bruxelles. He completed his medical training in the Faculty of Medicine of the Université Libre de Bruxelles and achieved his PhD in the Laboratory of Experimental Gastroenterology (Université Libre de Bruxelles) in 2007. He was president of the Belgian Association for the study of the Liver (2017-2018), a member of the European Association for the Study of the Liver and the American Association for the Study of Liver disease. He was Associate Editor for the Journal of Hepatology (2014-2019) and is Associate Editor for UEG Journal since 2019. Christophe Moreno has published more than 120 articles in prominent journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Journal of Hepatology. His main research interests are alcohol-related liver diseases, complications of cirrhosis, and genetics of liver disease.

Lorenzo Ridola

Lorenzo Ridola (Sapienza Università di Roma) – Lorenzo Ridola is an Associate Professor in gastroenterology at the “Sapienza” University of Rome, Rome (Italy). He received his medical education at the “Sapienza” University of Rome and graduated in Medicine and Surgery in 2005. In 2009, he specialized in Gastroenterology, at the “Sapienza” University of Rome and in 2013, he obtained a PhD in “Clinical and Experimental Hepatology” at the same University. Since 2010 Dr. Ridola serves as a clinical and research gastroenterologist at Polo Pontino Health hub, “Sapienza” University of Rome. Dr Ridola’s scientific interests include the complications of liver cirrhosis and particularly portal hypertension and hepatic encephalopathy. Lorenzo Ridola is a member of the Italian Society of Gastroenterology (S.I.G.E.),and the Italian Association for the Study of the Liver (A.I.S.F.).

Stratigoula Sakellariou

Stratigoula Sakellariou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens) – Dr. Stratigoula Sakellariou is a Histopathologist and Assistant Professor in the 1st Dept. of Pathology, Medical School of National and Kapodistian University of Athens (NKUA). She has a special interest in liver, pancreas and GI tract Pathology. She was a visiting Pathologist at the Institute of Liver Studies, King's College Hospital, London, UK under the direction of Prof Bernard Portmann. Currently, she is a member of the Liver Transplantation Program of Laiko General Hospital in Athens. Her research is mainly focused on liver diseases. Additionally, she is involved in the study of inflammatory bowel diseases, GI and pancreatic cancer.

Dina Tiniakos

Dina Tiniakos (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens) - Dina Tiniakos is Professor of Pathology and Director, Dept of Pathology, Aretaieion Hospital, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, and an academic liver pathologist at the Translational and Clinical Research Institute, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, UK. She is Past President of the European Society of Pathology and Chair of Equality & Diversity Taskforce, United European Gastroenterology. She is an invited member of the International Liver Pathology Group “Gnomes” and the Laennec Liver Pathology Society. Her main research interests are fatty and autoimmune liver disease and hepatocarcinogenesis. She has authored >170 peer-reviewed scientific articles and textbooks chapters on liver pathology. She is Associate Editor of “Histopathology” and Editorial Board member of “Journal of Hepatology” and “Annals of Gastroenterology”. 

Eric Trépo

Eric Trépo (Université libre de Bruxelles) – Dr. Trépo is a Hepatologist and Associate Professor at CUB Hopital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium. He is also a Research Associate from the Fund for Scientific Research-FNRS and a steering committee member of the Belgian Association for the Study of the Liver. His research focuses on the susceptibility to alcohol-related liver disease (ALD) especially severe alcoholic hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). His group aims to further improve our understanding of ALD using genome-wide association studies, and single-cell genomics.