Dr Tiing-leong Ang is Chief and Senior Consultant at the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Changi General Hospital, Singapore. He is also co-Director of the Endoscopy Centre. He is Adj Associate Professor at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. He is the chairman of the Chapter of Gastroenterologist, Academy of Medicine, Singapore and past President of the Gastroenterological Society of Singapore. He is member of the Singapore Gastroenterology Residency Advisory Committee. He has subspecialty clinical interests in pancreaticobiliary diseases, early GI cancers and advanced therapeutic endoscopy, in particular therapeutic ERCP and interventional EUS. His research interests include acid-related disorders, H. pylori infection, pancreatico-biliary diseases, image enhanced endoscopy, therapeutic ERCP and interventional EUS.

Dr. Chan is currently a clinical associate professor in Department of Anatomical and Cellular Pathology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He obtained his basic medical science degree and medical degree in 2000 and 2002, respectively. He completed his postgraduate pathology training at Prince of Wales Hospital, and received the fellowships from Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia and Hong Kong College of Pathologists in 2009 and 2010, respectively. He has been actively participating research projects with collaboration with scientists and clinicians, and is a co-author of an atlas of liver pathology and over 140 articles in peer-reviewed journals. His major research interests are prognostic/therapeutic biomarkers and molecular carcinogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma and common gastrointestinal cancers. Dr. Chan has been an invited speaker in pathology meetings in mainland China and overseas. He has been appointed as a committee member of Youth Committee of the Chinese Pathologist and Education Committee of Hong Kong College of Pathologists as special coordinator (anatomical pathology) and vice chairman.

Professor Henry Lik Yuen Chan is currently Head of Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Director of Institute of Digestive Disease, Director of Center for Liver Health, Director of Office of Global Engagement, and Assistant Dean (External Affairs) of Faculty of Medicine, CUHK. He is the course director of Master of Science in Gastroenterology, CUHK. Professor Chan is an associate editor of Journal of Hepatology, Hepatology International and Seminars in Liver Disease. He is the co-chairman of the Joint European-Latin American Clinical Practice Guideline panel for non-invasive tests for liver disease evaluation in 2015 and a member of the writing committee of the Asian-Pacific management guideline for chronic hepatitis B in 2012 and 2015. He is also the co-chairman of the Strategic and Technical Committee on Viral Hepatitis for the Western Pacific Regional Office of World Health Organization. He was awarded as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Persons in Hong Kong in 2008 in recognition of his professional excellence and contribution to the community. Professor Chan is a key investigator in over 30 international trials on antiviral treatment of chronic hepatitis B and C, and is the global lead author in publications on peginterferon-alfa, peginterferon-lambda, telbivudine, tenofovir disoproxil fumarate and tenofovir alafenamide for the treatment of viral hepatitis B. He has received numerous local, national and international research awards. He has published over 400 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

Philip Chiu is currently Professor of Division of Upper GI and Metabolic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Institute of Digestive Disease; Director of CUHK Jockey Club Minimal Invasive Surgical Skills Center; Director of CUHK Chow Yuk Ho Technology Center for Innovative Medicine and Assistant Dean (External Affairs), Faculty of Medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong. Professor Chiu graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1994 with two scholarships. He became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Hong Kong Academy of Medicine in 2001 and received his Doctor of Medicine at CUHK in 2009. Prof. Chiu was the first to perform endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) for treatment of early GI cancers in Hong Kong. In 2010, he performed the first Per-oral Endoscopic Myotomy (P.O.E.M.) in Hong Kong. His research interests include upper gastrointestinal bleeding, esophageal cancer and minimally invasive and robotic esophagectomy, novel endoscopic technologies for diagnosis of early GI cancers, ESD and novel endoscopic procedures as well as Natural Orifices Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES). Currently he is honorary treasurer of the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong. He has published more than 170 peer reviewed manuscripts and 4 book chapters. He received numerous prestigious awards including State Scientific Technology and Progress Award from People’s Republic of China in 2007, 2nd class award in Technological Advancement, Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China in 2011. He served as Yeoh Ghim Seng Visiting Professor at Department of Surgery, National University of Singapore from 2014-2017. His research on POEM was awarded best of DDW 2011 and first prize of ASGE world cup of endoscopy 2012. He was selected as Asia Pacific Digestive Week JGHF Emerging Leader Lectureship in 2016 and Global Outstanding Chinese Youth 2016. He is currently co-editor of Endoscopy and subject editor for Surgical Endoscopy.

Susie leads the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Service at Liverpool Hospital in Sydney where she is a senior staff specialist and Conjoint Associate Professor with University of New South Wales. She is currently the Chairperson for the Australian Inflammatory Bowel Disease Association (AIBDA) within the Gastroenterological Society of Australia, is on the management committee for the Australian and New Zealand IBD Consortium and a faculty member of Cornerstones Best of DDW program. The Liverpool IBD service is an active member of the ANZIBD consortium and contributor to Crohn’s Colitis Cure. Local research interests include: biologic level testing, patient centred tools for IBD, and initiatives to facilitate IBD care for gastroenterologists.

Dr James East MD(Res) FRCP is a Consultant Gastroenterologist and Endoscopist, and Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer, based at the Translational Gastroenterology Unit, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford. He is Clinical Lead for Endoscopy and Clinical Director of Bowel Cancer Screening Oxfordshire. He trained in Edinburgh, Cambridge and London, with a research fellowship at St. Mark’s Hospital leading to an MD(Res) from Imperial College. He received the British Society of Gastroenterology’s Hopkins Prize on the basis of this work. His research interests include quality in endoscopy, serrated polyps, endoscopy in IBD, and advanced endoscopic imaging and therapy. He was elected to the British Society of Gastroenterology Endoscopy Committee in 2015 and advises the UK National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

Professor El-Omar graduated in Medicine from Glasgow University, Scotland, and trained as a gastroenterologist. He worked as a Visiting Scholar/Scientist at Vanderbilt University, TN, and National Cancer Institute, MD, USA, and was Professor of Gastroenterology at Aberdeen University, Scotland, for 16 years before taking up the Chair of Medicine at St George & Sutherland Clinical School, UNSW. He is the Editor in Chief of the journal Gut. His research interests include the gut microbiome, inflammation driven GI cancer and IBD. He is the Director of the Microbiome Research Centre at St George Hospital, Sydney, Australia.

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. He undertakes basic and clinical research on NASH, hepatitis C, liver cancer and hepatic fibrosis. He is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Hepatology, and is or has been on the Editorial Board of Hepatology, Liver International, Hepatology International and the World Journal of Gastroenterology. He was a past Executive Council member of the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver and was on the council of the Gastroenterological society of Australia. He has published over 365 papers, with over 26,000 citations.

Takuji Gotoda, MD, PhD graduated from Tokyo Medical University in 1992. After internship, he started residency for Gastrointestinal Oncology from 1995, and was appointed the Chief of the Endoscopy Division at National Cancer Center Hospital from 2006. He has received ASGE Audiovisual Award in 2005 and 2010. He has served in the board member of Digestion, Gastric Cancer, Digestive Endoscopy and Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, and the council of the Japanese Gastric Cancer Association, Japanese Society of Gastroenterology, Japanese Gastroenterological Endoscopy Society and Japanese Society of Gastroenterology. He has also been honored as a Fellow of ASGE from 2012, ACG from 2015 and RCA from 2015. Very recently, he is serving guest professor, The PLA Army General Hospital from 2016 and Visiting Professor, Qinghai Provincial People's Hospital from 2017. His presented position is Professor, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, Nihon University School of Medicine from November, 2015.

Dr. Jia received a B.S. in biological sciences at Fudan University in 2005 and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Case Western Reserve University in 2011, with work on mitosis and RNA helicases, respectively. She went on to study DNA demethylation at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill as a postdoc and received a fellowship award from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. In 2012, Dr. Jia became a scientific editor for the then new journal of Nature Communications, responsible for manuscripts in various DNA or RNA-related topics. Dr. Jia joined BGI in 2013 to study the human microbiome and its relationship with complex diseases. Notable publications include reference datasets as well as metagenome-wide association studies (e.g. http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/nbt.2942, http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2405471216303234, http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/nrmicro.2016.83, http://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-00900-1).

Dr. Christian Jobin received his PhD in Immunology/Microbiology from Université Laval (Quebec, Canada) in 1994. Dr. Jobin is a Gatorade Trust Professor of Medicine at the University of Florida Gainesville. His research focuses on establishing mechanisms controlling host-bacteria interaction in the intestine. His laboratory is especially interested in the functional impact of bacteria in inflammation and carcinogenesis. He has published over 160 scientific papers (Science, Nature, Nat. Micro., Immunity, J. Exp. Med., Gastroenterology) and presented his work at various national and international scientific meetings (>165 conferences). His research, supported by the National Institute of Health has led to numerous awards and honours (Mucosal Immunology Society Award, American Gastroenterological Association Fiterman Young Investigator Basic Research Award, UF Senior Faculty Excellence in Research Award). Dr. Jobin has served on several study sections including American Cancer Society, CCFA Fellowship and Career Awards, NIH tumor microenvironment and he is currently serving on the Gastrointestinal Mucosal Pathobiology study section (GMPB-permanent member).

Michael Kamm is Professor of Gastroenterology at St Vincent’s Hospital and the University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia. He trained in Melbourne and London, and was then Chairman of Medicine and Professor of Gastroenterology at St Mark’s Hospital in London until returning home to Australia 10 years ago. His main focus is on luminal gastroenterology, with a special interest in inflammatory bowel diseases and functional gut and pelvic floor disorders. He is a passionate clinician, researcher, and teacher. His research aims to improve practice and outcomes, and ranges from basic science through to translational and clinical research. His current research interests include the science to the practice of inflammatory bowel disease, and the development of multi-disciplinary paradigms for managing functional gut disorders.

Professor Rupert Leong is the Director of Endoscopy at Concord Hospital in Sydney. Following training in Clinical Immunology and Gastroenterology, he was awarded the Amy and Athelstan Overseas Research Fellowship of UWA to be the Visiting Scholar at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Upon completion of dual fellowship training on interventional endoscopy and inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) he commenced practice as Senior Lecturer at UNSW rising to the rank of Professor of Medicine at both University of Sydney and UNSW within a short time. He founded IBD Sydney in 2012, the Australian IBD Consensus Group in 2014 and IBD School in 2016. Rupert’s research on the epidemiology of IBD awarded him the Gastroenterological Society of Australia Researcher on the Rise, the inaugural Young Achiever Award from the Australian Chinese Medical Association, the American Gastroenterological Association Fellowship by invitation for research excellence and NHMRC Career Development Fellowship. Professor Leong serves on the national gastroenterology society and government agencies and has over 170 peer-reviewed publications. He sits on the GESA Research Committee and editorial boards of American Journal of Gastroenterology, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and JGH.

T. Jake Liang, M.D. is currently the Chief of Liver Diseases Branch and Deputy Director of Translational Research, NIDDK, NIH. He graduated from Harvard College and received his MD degree from Harvard Medical School. He completed his internal medicine residency at the New York University/Bellevue Hospital Center, and a fellowship in gastroenterology and hepatology at Massachusetts General Hospital and HMS, where he was an Assistant Professor of Medicine from 1990-1996. Dr. Liang is an internationally renowned and dominant thought leader in the field of viral hepatitis and liver diseases with diverse scientific expertise and editorial experience in virology, immunology, cell biology, therapeutics, regenerative medicine and genetics/genomics. He has published over 300 scientific papers. Dr. Liang has been an Associate Editor for Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Gut. He was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, the AAAS Fellow, the American Academy of Microbiology, and the National Academy of Medicine. He was a member of the ASCI Council, served on the Governing Board of the AASLD and was the President of the AASLD in 2011.

Dr. Young Suk Lim is a Professor in the Department of Gastroenterology, Liver Center at Asan Medical Center, affiliated by the University of Ulsan College of Medicine in Seoul, Korea. Prof. Lim graduated from Seoul National University College of Medicine in 1992 and obtained his PhD at Seoul National University. He completed the Clinical Research Training Program at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, USA in 2008. Prof. Lim is currently the Director of the Clinical Trial Center of Asan Medical Center, and the Chair of the Scientific Committee of the Korean Liver Cancer Association. He has also served as a member of the Korean Practice Guideline Committees for hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Prof. Lim was awarded the Emerging Leader Lecturer by the Asian Pacific Digestive Week 2015, Taipei, Taiwan. Prof. Lim has also successively received the Distinguished Achievement Award of Asan Medical Center for 7 years since 2011. Prof. Lim's research interests include hepatitis B and surveillance for hepatocellular carcinoma. He has been a principal investigator in many investigator-sponsored and industry-sponsored clinical trials related to hepatitis B, C, and HCC.

I am currently a final-year doctoral candidate among members of Professor Jun Yu's research team at the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics and the Institute of Digestive Diseases in the Chinese University of Hong Kong. My doctoral work focuses on understanding and harnessing the role of intestinal microbiota in colorectal cancer (CRC) pathogenesis, detection, prognostication, and treatment. One of the greatest challenges in the field of CRC microbiome research has been to uncover mechanisms of interaction among members of the gut microbiota that shape the structural and functional heterogeneities of microbial communities associated with the clinical outcome of CRC patients. I address this question in systems biology by integrating trans-kingdom taxonomic profiles into building a broader picture of the microbial kingdoms in CRC. Ultimately, the goal of my research is to identify metagenomic origins of CRC-associated oncomicrobes for leveraging the disease model applications of microbiome analysis.

Siew Ng is Professor at the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Chinese University of Hong Kong and Honorary Senior Lecturer at University of Melbourne. She graduated from St Bartholomew’s and the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry and was awarded a PhD in immunology and intestinal inflammation by Imperial College London in 2009. Her research interests include the epidemiology, genetics and microbiota of inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer biomarker and screening. She has published over 120 peer-reviewed articles including publications in Nature Genetics, Gut and Gastroenterology. She leads the first large scale Asia-Pacific epidemiologic IBD study and the Asian Microbiota consortium. She is peer reviewer of 14 journals and editorial board members for 5 biomedical journals. She is President of the Hong Kong IBD Society, Management Committee of the International IBD Genetics Consortium, and Deputy Secretary of the International Organization of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. In 2014, she received the Distinguished Research Paper Award for Young Investigators and the JGHF Emerging Leader Lectureship Award.

Prof Simon Ng is currently Assistant Dean (Learning Experience) of the Faculty of Medicine, and Professor of the Division of Colorectal Surgery, Department of Surgery, CUHK. He is the President of the Hong Kong Society for Coloproctology, a Council Member of the Hong Kong IBD Society and the Hong Kong Society of Robotic Surgery, a Board Member of the Asia Pacific Endo-Lap Surgery Group, and an International Fellow of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons. He is also serving as a Member of the Colorectal Cancer Screening Pilot Programme Task Force of the Department of Health, Hong Kong SAR Government. Prof Ng’s main clinical and research interests are minimally invasive/robotic surgery and advanced endoscopic therapy for colorectal diseases, multimodality treatment for colorectal cancer, colorectal cancer screening, and surgery for inflammatory bowel disease. He has published over 170 articles in peer-reviewed journals, including first-authored publications in top-notched journals such as Lancet, Gastroenterology, and Annals of Surgery. His research work in colorectal surgery has earned him a number of international and national awards, including the International Guest Scholarship of the American College of Surgeons (2010), the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh China Medal (2014 and 2016), the Ministry of Education Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Output Award – First-class Award in Natural Sciences (2014), and the State Natural Science Award – Second-class Award (2016).

Dr Eddy Choon Jin Ooi is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh and the Academy of Medicine Singapore. From 1998 to 2000, he trained at the Center for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He previously served as Chairman of the Chapter of Gastroenterologists, Academy of Medicine and President of the Gastroenterological Society of Singapore. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Duke-NUS Medical School, Consultant Gastroenterologist at Gleneagles Medical Centre and a Visiting Consultant to the IBD Centre at Singapore General Hospital. He is the current Secretary General of the Asian Pacific Association of Gastroenterology (APAGE) and lead for APAGE Working Group on IBD.

Dr D Nageshwar Reddy is currently the Chairman of Asian Institute of Gastroenterology, Hyderabad, India. Past President of World Endoscopy Organization. He graduated from Kurnool Medical College obtaining internal medicine, Masters in Madras Medical College and D.M in Gastroenterology from PGIMER, Chandigarh. He subsequently worked as a Professor of Gastroenterology in Andhra Pradesh Health Sciences before setting up Asian Institute of Gastroenterology, a tertiary care Gastro intestinal Specialties Hospital. His main area of research interest has been in G.I. Endoscopy particularly in Therapeutic Pancreatio Biliary Endoscopy and Innovations in Transgastric Endoscopic Surgery. He has published over 460 papers in National & International Peer review journals and has contributed chapters in 7 International Text Books of Gastroenterology and has edited 3 G.I. Endoscopy Text Books. He is on the Editorial Board of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, Digestive Endoscopy, World Journal of Gastroenterology, World Gastroenterology News, Gastroenterology Today, The Journal of Chinese Clinical Medicine, and Recent Patents on Medical Imaging, Indian Journal of Gastroenterology and Gastro-Hep.com. He is the peer reviewer of the Journals like Lancet, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, Endoscopy, World Journal of Gastroenterology, Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology and Indian Journal of Gastroenterology. He was the President of Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy of India in 2001. He has been a visiting faculty for 112 international endoscopy workshops and forum member of Asian Endoscopy Masters Forum. He has been recognized for his achievements by several societies. He received the B C Roy Award from the Indian Medical Council in 1995. He received PADMA SHRI AWARD from Government of India in 2002. He has been elected as honorary member for American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy in 2004, Fellow of National Academy of Medical Sciences, New Delhi in 2001, Fellow of Philippines Society of Gastroenterology in 2001, Fellow of Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 2003, and is a recipient of Honorary Doctor in Sciences (D.S.C) from Nagarjuna University in 2005. He has given several named orations including The Francisco Roman oration of Philippines Society of Gastroenterology 2002, Dr Panner Selvam Memorial Oration of Malaysian Society of Gastroenterology in 2006, Kees Huibregtse Oration of 15th International Symposium on Pancreatio Biliary Endoscopy, Los Angeles 2007, Sir Francis Avery Jones Professorship in St. Marks, London 2008, Peter Gilispje oration, Australia 2010. He received the Master Endoscopist Award from A.S.G.E in 2009, ASGE International Leadership Award in 2011 and Fellow of American College of Gastroenterology in 2012. He received the highest Award Master of World Gastroenterology Organization from World Gastroenterology Organization in 2014. In 2015 he received honorary fellowship from Hong Kong society of Gastroenterology. He was the Secretary General of World Endoscopy Organization from February 2014 to October 2014 and he is the past President of World Endoscopy Organization. He received PADMA BHUSHAN AWARD from Government of India in 2016. He received 44th Dhanvantari Award from Dhanvantari Medical Foundation, Mumbai in 2017.

Dr. Tajiri is currently Professor in the Department of Innovative Interventional Endoscopy Research at the Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. He has worked scientifically in the fields of various new endoscopic diagnosis and treatment for the GI malignancies. Dr. Tajiri has published more than 300 peer-reviewed articles and written numerous book chapters. He has been in the position of President of JGES since 2013 and President of the Japanese Association for Capsule Endoscopy since 2016. In addition, he has been active as Vice President of Asian Pacific Society for Digestive Endoscopy (APSDE). Dr. Tajiri has been awarded several times for his distinguished research achievements, and received Honorary Membership Award from ASGE in 2007, Princess Takamatsu Cancer Research Fund Prize in 2010, International Service Award from SIED (Sociedad InterAmericana de Endoscopia Digestiva) in 2016 and also awarded to ESGE Honorary Membership in 2016. He received Crystal Award (International Service Award) from ASGE in May, 2017 and Special Contribution Award from the Digestive Endoscopy Society of Taiwan in July, 2017.

Dr. Yoji Takeuchi is currently a deputy director of Department of Gastrointestinal Oncology at Osaka International Cancer Institute. Dr. Takeuchi received his M.D. degree from Nara Medical University in 1997. He subsequently obtained his PhD degree from Nara Medical University in 2014. Dr. Takeuchi was awarded the Best Reviewer Award of Digestive Endoscopy in 2012-2015. He is an associated editor in Digestive Disease and was an editorial board member in Hepatogastroenterology. His specialty is endoscopic diagnosis and therapy for gastrointestinal neoplasms, especially for colorectal polyps/cancers. He has conducted several clinical trials and published papers about endoscopic diagnosis for colorectal polyps using image enhanced endoscopy (AFI/NBI), colorectal ESD, and cold polypectomy

Dr. Tang received his M.D. degree from University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine in 2004 and was selected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. He completed his internal medicine residency at University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center in 2007. He completed his gastroenterology and hepatology fellowship at University of California, San Diego Medical Center and achieved certification in gastroenterology from the American Board of Internal Medicine in 2010. Dr. Tang subsequently pursued training in advanced endoscopy with focus on EUS, ERCP and balloon-assisted enteroscopy at University of California, San Diego Medical Center in 2010 - 2011. His clinical and research interests include EUS, ERCP, pancreatic cystic neoplasms, GI cancers, and GI bleeding. He has published papers and written book chapters on topics of EUS, pancreatic cystic neoplasms, and GI bleeding. Dr. Tang is currently a clinical professional consultant at the Institute of Digestive Disease, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, associate director of the S.H. Ho Center for Digestive Health, and deputy director of endoscopy center at the Prince of Wales Hospital.

Dr. Norah Terrault is the Professor of Medicine and the Director of the Viral Hepatitis Center at the University of California San Francisco. She is recognized nationally and internationally for her work related to viral hepatitis, especially in the setting of liver transplantation. She has authored more than 290 original articles, reviews and book chapters on viral hepatitis, including the recent AASLD Hepatitis B Treatment Guidelines. She has served as associate editor for Hepatology, is current Associate Editor for Hepatology Communications and a member of the AASLD HCV Guidance Committee. She is an investigator on several NIH-funded clinical studies in hepatitis B and C, as well as NASH and is an investigator on several ongoing clinical trials of novel therapies for patients with chronic liver diseases.

Microbial communities colonizing human and other organisms carry out important functions in the physiology of hosts, including metabolism, immune functions and affect the health of host. During my PhD and post-doc research, I have investigated the fundamental shaping forces of microbiome diversity in wild mice model as well as humans. In European wild mice, I have demonstrated that biogeography, diet and genetic all have profound effect on the composition and functionality of gut microbiome, and host forms an evolutionary entity with their microbiota (Linnenbrink and Wang, 2013 Mole Ecol; Wang 2014 PNAS; Wang 2015 Nat Comms). With large population studies, I have built novel statistical models to explore comprehensive environmental influences on the individuality of gut microbiome (Falony, Joossens, Viera-Silva, Wang 2016 Science), and carried out one of the first genome-wide-association study on human microbiota (Wang, Ithingholm, Skiecevičienė 2016 Nat Genet). And lastly, I have revealed the important gene-microbiome cross-talk in critical disease models, pinpointing microbiome as important mediator or direct cause in disease manifestation, and conversely could be used for treatment (Moschen, Gerner, Wang 2016 Cell Host Microb; Peuker & Muff 2016 Nat Med, etc.).

Grace Wong is a Professor in the department of Medicine and Therapeutics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2001 with honors and distinctions in medicine. After graduation, she received training at the division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong, China. In 2008, she completed her training and was awarded Fellow of the Hong Kong College of Physicians. In 2010, she obtained her doctoral degree of medicine from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Dr. Wong’s main research interests include non-invasive assessment of liver fibrosis, chronic viral hepatitis, and risk prediction for hepatocellular carcinoma. She has published over 210 articles in peer-reviewed journals including Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Gut. She is currently Editor-in-Chief of Hepatology (Hong Kong edition), Associate Editor of Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics, an editorial board member of 12 journals, and a reviewer of 66 biomedical journals. She has been awarded the Young Investigator Award of the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver in 2009, the Distinguished Research Paper Award for Young Investigators of the Hong Kong College of Physicians in 2010, 2013, 2014, and 2015, the Ten Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) of Hong Kong in 2014, the Sir David Todd Lectureship of the Hong Kong College of Physicians in 2016, and Emerging Leader Lectureship of the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Foundation (JGHF) at APDW 2017.

Dr. John C.T. Wong is Clinical Professional Consultant at the Institute of Digestive Disease, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He received his medical degree and the John Scott Honor Award from the University of Alberta, Canada, followed by internal medicine residency and gastroenterology fellowship at the University of British Columbia, Canada. He pursued additional endoscopy training, first at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s gastrointestinal endoscopy fellowship in New York, with support of a Detweiler Travelling Fellowship from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, then as a Honorary Visiting Scholar at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong. Dr. Wong is trained in therapeutic endoscopy, including endoscopic ultrasound, endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, peroral cholangioscopy, radiofrequency ablation, luminal stenting, and nutritional access techniques. His clinical and research interests focus on upper gastrointestinal bleeding, and the role of endoscopy for the screening, diagnosis, treatment, and palliation of gastrointestinal cancers. Dr. Wong is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada, and a Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Vincent Wong is a professor at the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He graduated from the same university and received training under Professors Joseph Sung, Francis Chan and Henry Chan. His research focuses on viral hepatitis and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. He has authored over 300 articles in international medical journals. His team pioneered the use of non-invasive tests of liver fat and fibrosis to study the epidemiology of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. His papers have been cited by various guidelines, and his latest h-index is 56. He is an associate editor of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology and served as the president of the Hong Kong Association for the Study of Liver Diseases from 2015 to 2017. He is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, the Hong Kong College of Physicians and the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine.

In medical research career, Chun-Ying Wu received his M.D. degree from the National Taiwan University (NTU) in 1991, M.P.H. degree from Harvard School of Public Health in 1993, and Ph.D. degree from NTU in 2007. Prof. Wu has positions as the Director of Translational Research and Professor of Gastroenterology in Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Joint Appointment Researcher of National Institute of Cancer Research, and also Professor of Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, including National Yang-Ming University (NYMU). Prof. Wu establishes Taiwan Microbiome Consortium and currently serves as the first President in the consortium. Prof. Wu is now the Editor-in-Chief of Advances in Digestive Medicine (the joint official journal of GEST, DEST & TASL), editorial member of Gut, Vice-Secretary General of both the Gastroenterological Society of Taiwan and the Digestive Endoscopy Society of Taiwan, the executive of the Taiwan Liver Cancer Association, and the control board of the Taiwan Evidence-based Medicine Association. Prof. Wu has published many articles in top ranking journals such as JAMA, J Clinical Oncology, Gastroenterology, Gut, Hepatology, etc. Prof. Wu owns several patterns, including gastric cancer screening and hepatitis B virus quantitative detection. Prof. Wu is the winner of National Innovation Award 2016, Taiwan Institute for Biotechnology & Medicine Industry; Outstanding Research Award 2015, Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology; and Emerging Leadership Award 2015, Asia-Pacific Digestive Week. Prof. Wu also got several Best Teaching Awards from NYMU. Prof. Wu is also very active in legal societies. He received his LL.B. degree from Tunghai University (TU) in 2000 and LL.M. degree from Harvard Law School in 2003. He is the current President of Taiwan Society of Law and Medicine and Professor of Law in College of Law at the TU. He is also the member of Medical Dispute Assessment Committee of Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), the member of Institute Review Board of the National Health Research Institutes (NHRI), the member of the Ethical Committee of many central governments’ departments, including MOHW and NHRI. His legal research interests include medical malpractice litigation and biotechnology regulation. Prof. Wu has published four law textbooks, four chapters in law books, and more than 60 articles in peer-reviewed journals. Prof. Wu’s evidence-based research has become the important basis of many Taiwan’s nationwide policies regarding medical malpractice.

Dr. Wu is the Ferdinand G. Weisbrod Professor in Gastroenterology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania where he is the Associate Chief for Research in the Division of Gastroenterology, the Associate Director of the Center for Molecular Studies in Digestive and Liver Disease, and the Co-Director of the PennCHOP Microbiome Program. He was the inaugural Director and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for the American Gastroenterological Association Center for Gut Microbiome Research and Education. Research programs in the Wu laboratory focus on the mutualistic interactions between the gut microbiota and its host with a particular emphasis on metabolism including nitrogen balance, intestinal oxygen regulation, and epithelial intermediary metabolism. This includes studies on the effect of diet on the gut microbiome and its relationship to therapeutic responses associated with the use of defined formula diets in the treatment of Crohn's disease.

Professor Wu is a professor of gastroenterology and the director of S.H. Ho Centre for Digestive Health in the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is also serving as the Associate Dean (Development) of Faculty of Medicine. Professor Wu is research and clinical interests in functional gastrointestinal disorder, gastrointestinal motility and gastroesophageal reflux disease with over 200 publications in top-ranked journals including Gastroenterology and Gut. He was awarded “Emerging Leader in Gastroenterology” Award by Asia Pacific Association of Gastroenterology. Professor Wu is serving in many international professional organizations, which include the Scientific Chairman of Asian Neurogastroenterology and Motility Association (ANMA), Honorary Treasurer of Asia Pacific Association of Gastroenterology, full-time Member of International Working Group for the Classification of Oesophagitis and steering committee member of Asian Barrett’s Consortium of National Cancer Institute. As a devoted teacher, Professor Wu was awarded “The Vice Chancellor’s Exemplary Teaching Award” (2009), “Master Teacher” (2012), “Education Award” (2014), and five “Teacher of the Year” Awards (2006-2011) by the Faculty of Medicine, CUHK in recognition of his contribution to medical education. He is also the Fellow of Royal College of Physicians and American Gastroenterological Association.