Dr. Rupa Banerjee is a senior consultant gastroenterologist in the department of Gastroenterology and the Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) center at the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology, Hyderabad, India. She is also the director of IBD research with the Asian Healthcare Foundation, Hyderabad.

Dr. Rupa established the first dedicated IBD center of excellence in India in 2004. She has designed and maintains a 6000-patient database and biorepository for the center detailing the demographics, type and course of disease and response to treatment in the Indian subpopulation. Her primary focus has been optimal & affordable multidisciplinary care of IBD.

Dr Rupa is actively involved in research on inflammatory bowel disease in the Asian region focusing on the epidemiology, microbiota, & genetic profile of this population for optimizing and individualizing the management of IBD and the development of low-cost treatment options. She has been the principal investigator for numerous clinical trials in ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.

Dr. Rupa has initiated the IBD-ENC (IBD –Emerging Nations Consortium) with over 20 countries South Asia, Middle East and Africa to promote collaborative work on IBD in this part of the world. She has been the key person to design the interactive web platform for the IBD-ENC(www.ibdenc.org) for IBD news, latest publications, discussing challenging cases and having the unique provision of development of personal IBD registry for members.

She organizes the AIG IBD Summit, an exclusive IBD meeting every alternate year with over 1500 delegates from India and neighbouring countries.

Dr. Rupa is the author of numerous papers and articles in peer-reviewed journals, has contributed to book chapters and lectured widely at both national and international level. She has published a book on advanced gastrointestinal imaging and 2 books on IBD management in clinical practice.

Professor Henry Lik Yuen Chan is a Deputy Chief Hospital Manager of Union Hospital and an Honorary Clinical Professor of Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Professor Chan is a global lead investigator in publications on peginterferon, telbivudine, and tenofovir for the treatment of viral hepatitis B, and has advised 13 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies for hepatitis B cure. He is the chairman of the Strategic Technical Advisory Committee on Viral Hepatitis for the Western Pacific Regional Office of WHO since 2015. He is currently a Global Council Member in IASL. He has received numerous research awards including Okuda Lectureship in Asia Pacific Digestive Week in 2018. He has published over 450 papers and is awarded Highly Cited Researcher (Cross Field) by Clarivate Analytics in 2018 and 2019 for producing multiple top 1% cited papers under Web of Science.

Dr Stephen L. Chan is the Associate (Clinical) Professor at the Department of Clinical Oncology of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. His main interest in research is clinical and translational studies on hepatobiliary-pancreatic and neuroendocrine cancers. Internationally, he is serving as the Associate Editor for the Journal of Hepatology and editorial board members of Liver International. Dr Chan is also an international member of the NCI Hepatobiliary Task Force of the Gastrointestinal Steering Committee in the United States. Dr Chan has published over 130 peer-reviewed papers, with awards of young investigator award and gold medal dissertation by the Hong Kong College of Physician. Locally, Dr Chan has established a charity Hand-in-hand cancer foundation to provide education and assistance to cancer patients.

Dr Chan is Professor at the University of Malaya and Senior Consultant Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist at the University of Malaya Medical Centre and the University of Malaya Specialist Centre. He is a Member of the Academy of Medicine of Malaysia and a Committee Member for the Malaysian Society of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. He is the Scientific Co-Chair for Hepatology for the Asia Pacific Digestive Week 2020. He is a member of the Asia-Pacific Working Party on Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, the Gut and Obesity in Asia (GO ASIA) Workgroup, and the Global NASH Council. He is Associate Editor for the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and is a reviewer for several international journals. He has published over 60 full papers in peer-reviewed journals and presented in both local and international conferences. His main area of research interest is non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

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 Centre; Director of CUHK Chow Yuk Ho Technology Centre for Innovative Medicine and Assistant Dean (External Affairs), Faculty of Medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong. Professor Chiu graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, the 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 the 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 the 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.

Dr Vinay Dhir MD,DNB,FASGE(USA),FSGEI, is currently the Chairman of the Institute of Digestive and Liver Care (IDL Care), SL Raheja Hospital, Mumbai. He is the founder of the School of EUS, which is awarded the Centre of Excellence status by the Asian EUS Group. He is also the Chairman of the India EUS Club, and president-elect of the Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Society of India. Dr Dhir has more than 120 publications and book chapters to his credit. He has devised an all in one training model for interventional EUS, and the popular railroad technique for linear pancreatico-biliary EUS. Dr Dhir has trained more than 150 students worldwide in EUS techniques over the past 20 years. His active research interests are pancreatico-biliary disorders and interventional EUS.

Since 2011 Geert D’Haens is Professor of gastroenterology at the Academic Medical Center at the University of Amsterdam. After graduation at the University of Leuven, Belgium, he was trained in gastroenterology, gastrointestinal endoscopy and inflammatory bowel diseases at the University Hospitals in Leuven and at the University of Chicago Hospitals under the mentorship of Paul Rutgeerts and Steven Hanauer, respectively. He finished his PhD thesis in 1996 on mechanisms causing postoperative recurrence of Crohn’s disease. After that, most of his research efforts went into the mechanism of action of new IBD drugs, the development of endoscopic endpoints and surrogate markers for IBD and the effect of early intervention with anti-TNF. In 1999, he was one of the founders of ECCO, the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organization. Currently, D’Haens leads a group of more than 35 IBD researchers in the AMC. Presently he is also Medical Director of Robarts Clinical Trials and chairman of IOIBD, the international organization for study of IBD. He authored more than 350 peer reviewed articles so far and participates in many drug development programs and clinical trials for IBD.

Edward Gane is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Auckland, New Zealand and Deputy Director of the New Zealand Liver Unit at Auckland City Hospital. He is an investigator for many international clinical trials of new therapies for chronic viral hepatitis and has published about 300 articles. Ed chairs the Ministry of Health HCV implementation committee and in 2017 was awarded the New Zealand Innovator of the Year for his work towards HCV elimination in NZ.

Subrata Ghosh is the Director of the Institute of Translational Medicine and Professor of Translational Medicine, University of Birmingham. He took up this position on the 1st of June 2016. He moved from Canada where he was the Professor of Medicine at the University of Calgary. He was cross-appointed as Professor of Immunology and microbiology and was an adjunct professor in the department of veterinary medicine. He was the Head of the Department of Medicine at Cumming School of Medicine, the University of Calgary and the Zone Clinical Department Head, Calgary Zone, Alberta Health Services. Previously, he was the Chair of Gastroenterology and Professor of Gastroenterology at the Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital and associate professor of gastroenterology at the University of Edinburgh. Professor Ghosh is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and a member of the International Organization for the Study of IBD. He is a past editor in chief of the Canadian Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, editor in chief of World Journal of Gastroenterology and associate editor of Gut, and sits on the editorial boards of several journals. He served on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Crohn’s and Colitis Canada and Chaired its of Advocacy Committee and he was the chairman of the medical advisors of the Crohn’s and Colitis UK. Prof Ghosh has published over 470 manuscripts (h index 87). He has delivered over 600 international lectures. His research interests are focused on translational immunology of inflammatory bowel disease and novel therapeutic approaches.

Juanda-leo Hartono following the completion of basic medical degree and Master of Internal Medicine, Dr. Juanda completed his gastroenterology specialist training in National University Hospital, Singapore. He is currently the Clinical Director of Gastroenterology & Hepatology Division and the Director of Inflammatory Bowel Service in National University Hospital of Singapore. Besides research, he is actively involved in teaching and is a Core Faculty for Post-Graduate Gastroenterology Training Programme.

Prof. JIA Wei is Cheung On Tak Endowed Professor in Chinese Medicine and Systems Biology, and Director of the Hong Kong Phenome Research Centre, Hong Kong Baptist University. He is also the Adjunct Professor and Director of the Center for Translational Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University affiliated 6th People’s Hospital.

Dr Jia’s M.S. and Ph.D. were completed at the University of Missouri-Columbia in radiopharmaceutical sciences. He is the author of over 300 scientific papers and 6 books and serves on the editorial boards for 9 scientific journals in the fields of metabolomic and translational research. His current research interest focuses on the molecular mechanisms that link metabolic disruptions in gut microbial-host co-metabolism to metabolic disorders and gastrointestinal cancer. Dr Jia directs a well-recognized metabolomics laboratory, focusing on the quantitative analysis of endogenous small-molecule metabolites from biological specimens including blood, urine, saliva, and tissues of experimental animals and human subjects.

W. Ray Kim, MD, is Professor and Chief in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Prior to assuming this post in November 2013, Dr Kim was Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. Dr Kim earned his medical diploma at Seoul National University in Korea. He underwent training in gastroenterology and hepatology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. He also holds a Master in Science Degree in patient oriented research from Seoul National University and a Master in Business Administration from the University of Pennsylvania. He has served on the Governing Board of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD), where he currently chairs the Global Outreach and Engagement Committee.

Dr Kim’s research interest has been in epidemiology and outcomes studies in chronic liver disease and liver cancer. His contribution to science to date includes the following: (1) Measures for risk stratification in patients with cirrhosis, including the Model for End Stage Liver Disease (MELD) and MELD-Na scores; (2) Population-based epidemiology of liver disease in Olmsted County, MN; (3) Liver transplant allocation and distribution policy analyses; and (4) health economic analyses and technology assessment. Dr Kim is recognized as a content expert on the topic of long term effects of antiviral therapy for patients with chronic viral hepatitis.

Dr Lau graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2012, receiving numerous prizes including the Dean’s List, College Head’s List, Philips Health Care Prize along with six other scholarships. He joined the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Prince of Wales Hospital after graduation. He completed his training in Gastroenterology and Hepatology under the mentorship of Professor Justin Wu and Professor Grace Wong. He is currently serving as a Resident Specialist in the Prince of Wales Hospital.

Dr Lau is also enthusiastic in medical education and received the Exemplary Teachers’ Award from the Faculty of Medicine in 2016-2017. He has special research interests in the early diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal cancers, endoscopic submucosal dissection and fecal microbiota transplantation. He has published peer-reviewed articles including papers in The New England Journal of Medicine, Gastroenterology and Gut. He was awarded the Poster of Distinction and the Certificate of Recognition for Early Career Investigators from the American Gastroenterological Association in Digestive Disease Week 2018 and 2019 respectively. He also attended local and overseas conferences on advanced endoscopy including the Asian Novel Bio-Imaging and Intervention Group Osaka Train-the-Trainer Course 2019. He was the recipient of the Gold Medal, Best Thesis Award in 2019 and the Young Investigator Research Grant in 2020 from the Hong Kong College of Physicians.

Jyhming Liou is currently the Director of Department of Medicine, National Taiwan University Cancer Center and Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine at College of Medicine, National Taiwan University. He received his medical degree from National Yang-Ming University in 1998 and his Ph.D. from Graduate Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine of National Taiwan University in 2013. He has focused his researches in the molecular epidemiology of GI tract cancers, treatment of refractory H. pylori infection, and changes of antibiotic resistance and gut microbiota after H. pylori eradication. He has published several trials regarding the treatment of H. pylori infection in top journals, including Lancet, Gastroenterology, and GUT.

He has received several awards, including Young Investigator Award of National Taiwan University Hospital, (2012), Ching-Shing Medical Award (2013), Ta-You Wu Memorial Award (2013), Outstanding Research Award of National Taiwan University Hospital (2018), Outstanding Research Award of Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan (2018), and Emerging Leader Award of APDW 2019.

Dr. Rashid Lui graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, CUHK in 2010 with Distinctions in Paediatrics, Obstetrics & Gynaecology and Microbiology, Subject Prize in Clinical Oncology, Dean's List of the Faculty of Medicine (2007, 2008, 2009), Head's List of Chung Chi College (2007), 12 other scholarships, and was selected as a Member of the Dr. and Mrs. Tzu Leung Ho Honour Society. He completed his specialist training in Gastroenterology and Hepatology in 2016, and is currently pursuing further specialist training in Medical Oncology under the mentorship of Professor Brigette Ma.

Dr. Lui has received various accolades including the Certificate of Recognition for Young Investigators at Digestive Disease Week 2018, the Young Investigator’s Award (2nd Prize) at Asian Pacific Digestive Week 2018, the Award for Obtaining the Highest Score in Advanced Internal Medicine Exit Assessment and the Young Investigator Research Grant from the Hong Kong College of Physicians in 2018, the Best Oral Presentation Award at the Hospital Authority Convention 2018, and the Exemplary Teachers' Award 2017-2018 from the Faculty of Medicine. In 2019, he was conferred as the inaugural Stanley Ho Scholar at St Anne’s College in partnership with the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford where he pursued training in personalised medicine. In addition, he was nominated as a Distinguished Young Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine and received the Best Original Paper Award from the Hong Kong Medical Journal in the same year.

Dr Lui’s research interests are focused on gastrointestinal oncology particularly in young onset colorectal cancer, pre-malignant lesions of the gastrointestinal tract, advanced endoscopy and gut microbiota modulation. He has published in peer-reviewed journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, Gut, Gastroenterology and Nature Communications. He currently serves as the Honorary Treasurer of the Hong Kong Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, the Social Media Editor for the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, an Editor and Member of the Expert Advisory Panel on Social Media of the Hong Kong Medical Journal, and an Editorial Board Member of the World Journal of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.

Dr Brigette Ma is currently Professor (CA2) and Honorary Consultant at the Department of Clinical Oncology, Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), Medical Director of the Phase I Clinical Trial Centre (Oncology), Co-Director of the Cancer Drug Testing Unit and Chair, NTEC-CUHK ethics committee. She received her undergraduate degree with Honours at Monash University, Australia, and was awarded Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (2001), Fellow of Hong Kong College of Physicians (2004), and Doctor of Medicine in 2014 (CUHK). She underwent training in Medical Oncology at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute, Melbourne, and was Research Fellow at the Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, Canada. She has published over 150 peer- reviewed papers. Notably, she is a Faculty member of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) in Gastrointestinal Cancer, and was a member of the Consensus Working Group for the management of metastatic colorectal cancer; executive member of the National Cancer Institute (Bethesda, USA) Head and Neck Cancer Steering Committee - Clinical Trials Planning Group on Nasopharyngeal Cancer, Co-chair of Widely Metastatic Group (since 2017); and mentor and committee member of the Women in Cancer Research of the American Association of Cancer Research (since 2016). Her other current roles include: member of the Joint Scientific Committee for Phase 1 Clinical Trials, Centre of Health Protection, Hong Kong Hospital Authority; Chair/ member of the Scientific Committee at the 2016 American Association of Cancer Research, ESMO (GI cancer) meeting in Barcelona, (since 2017) and ESMO (Asia) conference in Singapore.

Joyce Mak is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics. She graduated from the University of Hong Kong and became fellow in gastroenterology in 2015. She is very passionate about inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and she further pursuit training in IBD in St Mark’s Hospital, London and University of Chicago. She joined Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, the Chinese University of Hong Kong since March 2019. After joining CUHK, she has been working on various projects in IBD. She already has 2 book chapters on IBD and more than 20 peer-reviewed journal articles. Her research interest includes IBD and gut microbiota and its relationship with various diseases. She is currently the treasurer of the Hong Kong IBD Society.

Dr Eddy Choon Jin Ooi obtained his MBBS from National University of Singapore and attained his higher degree from the Royal College of Physicians, United Kingdom. He 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 is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Duke-NUS Medical School. He is a Consultant Gastroenterologist at Gleneagles and Farrer Park Medical Centre and a Visiting Consultant to the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Centre at Singapore General Hospital.

He previously served as Chairman of the Chapter of Gastroenterologists, Academy of Medicine Singapore and President of the Gastroenterological Society of Singapore. He is the Vice President of the Asian Pacific Association of Gastroenterology (APAGE) and the lead for APAGE Working Group on IBD. The IBD group has been pivotal in producing many IBD consensus to help guide clinicians in the diagnosis and management of IBD in Asia.

Dr Kewin Siah completed his undergraduate studies at Royal Free and University College Medical School (University College London). He had undergone advanced colonoscopy training in Japan (Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine) as part of the JSGE research fellowship award and received NMRC award to perform Irritable Bowel Syndrome research in world-renowned Oppenheimer Neurobiology of Stress Centre in UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) where he concentrated on brain-gut-microbiota research. He is currently a gastroenterology consultant at the National University Hospital where he runs the Gastro-Motility Lab and Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders Clinic. He is the President of Singapore’s IBS Support Group and an Executive Committee of National Foundation Digestive Disease. He is also a Council Member of Asian Neurogastroenterology & Motility Association.

Dr Jun Sun is a tenured Professor of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), U.S.A. She is an elected Fellow of American Gastroenterological Associate (AGA) and Fellow of American Physiological Society. She is the Chair for the AGA Microbiome and Microbial Therapy Section. Her research interests are host-microbiome interactions in inflammation and cancer. Dr Sun has published over 180 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals. She is the leading editor of three books, including a recent Nature/Spring book entitled “Mechanisms underlying host-microbiome interactions in pathophysiology of human diseases.” She serves the editorial board of more than 10 peer-reviewed international scientific journals. She services study sections for the NIH, American Cancer Society, and other national and international research foundations. She is actively involved in advocating microbiome research at the international, national and institutional levels. Her research is supported by the NIH, DOD, VA, and other research awards.

Dr Yoji Takeuchi is currently a deputy director of Department of Gastrointestinal Oncology at Osaka International Cancer Institute.

Dr Takeuchi was awarded the Best Reviewer Award of Digestive Endoscopy in 2012-2018. He is an associated editor in Digestive Disease and is an editorial board member in Endoscopy.

His specialty is endoscopic diagnosis and therapy for gastrointestinal neoplasms, especially for colorectal polyps/cancers.

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 and completed his gastroenterology and hepatology fellowship at University of California, San Diego Medical Center in 2010. Dr. Tang subsequently pursued advanced endoscopy training at University of California, San Diego Medical Center in 2010 - 2011.

His clinical and research interests include EUS, ERCP, endoscopy in altered anatomy, pancreatic cystic neoplasms and GI bleeding. He has published papers and written book chapters in EUS, GI oncology, and surgery textbooks 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, deputy director of endoscopy center at the Prince of Wales Hospital, and associate director of the S.H. Ho Center for Digestive Health.

Professor Anthony Y. B., TEOH is currently the Deputy Director of Endoscopy and Associate Professor in The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2001. After completing his surgical training, he has received overseas training in many international centres including the Kitasato University East Hospital and the Cancer Institute Hospital (Ariake) in Japan, the University of Washington, Cornell University and Stanford University in USA. His research interests are multifold and these include advanced interventional endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) and endoscopic retrograde cholangiography (ERCP), minimally invasive upper gastrointestinal cancer surgery, hernia surgery and robotics surgery. He is a winner of multiple awards including 2019 Asian Pacific Digestive Week Emerging Leaders Lectureship, Carlos Pellegrini Traveling Fellow, American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy endoscopic research awards, the GB Ong and Li Shield’s Medal (best candidate in the fellowship examinations both locally and internationally). He has served as a Visiting Professor to the Stanford Medical Center, Fujian University Medical Hospital, Consultant for Hepatopancreatobiliary Minimally Invasive Surgery Institute of Central South University. He is also a steering committee member for the Asian EUS group, member of pancreaticobiliary committee of the World Endoscopy Organization, Secretary to the Hong Kong EUS society, council member of Hong Kong Hernia society, Hong Kong society of Robotic surgery and Hong Kong Society of Digestive Endoscopy. In addition, he is currently an Associate Editor for Digestive Endoscopy and Techniques in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. His other editorial board experiences include several internationally renowned journals: Clinical gastroenterology and hepatology, VideoGIE, Endoscopic ultrasound, Saudi journal of gastroenterology, World journal of Gastrointestinal endoscopy and World Journal of Gastroenterology. He has published over 140 journal papers and written 14 book chapters. He is currently a Consultant for Boston Scientific, Cook, Taewoong and Microtech Medical Corporations.

Alexander Thompson is Professor and Director of the Department of Gastroenterology at St. Vincent’s Hospital and the University of Melbourne, Australia, NHMRC Practitioner Fellow and Adjunct Assistant Professor of the Department of Gastroenterology, Duke University Medical Center. Professor Thompson is the Program Director for the Victorian Statewide Hepatitis Service, Australia, contracted to the Victorian Government’s Department of Justice and Regulation, and the current President of the Australian Liver Association. His research focusses on improving outcomes for people living with viral hepatitis. He was involved in the discovery of IL28B polymorphism as a predictor of treatment outcome in HCV, and is an active clinical investigator for trials evaluating the efficacy of novel antiviral DAA regimens. With the development of DAA therapy for HCV, he has more recently been actively pursuing the development and evaluation of new models of care for people with HCV, with a focus on prisoners and treatment as prevention to eliminate transmission and reduce the prevalence of HCV in Australia. He has published widely in journals including Nature, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Gut and Journal of Hepatology.

Grace Wong is the Professor of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2001 with honors and distinctions in Medicine. In 2010, she received the Doctorial Degree of Medicine of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Grace Wong’s main research interest includes big data research in hepatology, chronic viral hepatitis, and risk prediction and risk reduction of hepatocellular carcinoma, and non-invasive assessment of liver fibrosis. She has published over 300 articles in peer-reviewed journals including Gastroenterology, Journal of Hepatology. Gut and Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology. She is currently the editor-in-chief of Hepatology (Hong Kong edition), the associate editor of Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics and Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, a reviewer of 94 biomedical journals, and the editorial board members of 16 journals. She has been awarded for 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, and the Distinguished Young Fellow of Hong Kong Academy of Medicine in 2017.

Vincent Wong is a professor at the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on viral hepatitis and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), in particular the use of non-invasive tests for screening and diagnosis. He has authored over 400 articles in international medical journals, and his latest h index is 79. Together with the Asia-Pacific Working Party, he wrote the Asia-Pacific Guidelines on the Management of NAFLD in 2018. He is an associate editor of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology and an editorial board member of the Journal of Hepatology, HEPATOLOGY, and Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics. He served as the president of the Hong Kong Association for the Study of Liver Diseases from 2015 to 2017. His team received research awards from the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver, Asian Pacific Digestive Week Federation, British Society of Gastroenterology, Hong Kong College of Physicians and the Food and Health Bureau.

Justin Wu is the Chief Operating Officer of CUHK Medical Centre and a professor of gastroenterology of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is the former Associate Dean (Development) of Faculty of Medicine, CUHK, the founding director of Asia’s first “Global Physician-Leadership Stream” (GPS), which pioneers the development of medical leadership for medical undergraduates in CUHK, and the founding director of Hong Kong Institute of Integrative Medicine with the mission of fostering cooperation between Western and Chinese medicine in the healthcare system. He is an eminent teacher with 8 teaching awards of medical education, which include Vice-Chancellor Exemplary Teaching Award, Master Teacher, and Teacher of the Year Awards in CUHK Medicine.

Justin also actively contributes to the development of medical innovations in Hong Kong. He is serving as an independent non-executive director of Aptorum Group (NASDAQ: APM), a Hong-Kong based biomedical technology company with 11 exclusively licensed technologies.

Justin is a gastroenterologist with expertise in functional gastrointestinal disorder and gastroesophageal reflux disease. He is serving in many local and international professional organizations, which include the President of Hong Kong Society of Gastroenterology, President of Asia Pacific Digestive Week (APDW) 2017, and Secretary General of Asia Pacific Association of Gastroenterology (APAGE).

Ming-Shiang Wu is the distinguished professor and chairman of the School of Medicine, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, and staff physician, Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.

Professor Wu graduated from the National Taiwan University College of Medicine in 1989, and obtained his PhD from the University’s Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine in 1998. After completing his internal medicine residency and gastroenterology training, he was appointed staff physician in the Division of Gastroenterology, National Taiwan University Hospital, in 1995. He has taught at his alma mater since then, gradually rising in the ranks to professor in 2007. In 2012, he was appointed as distinguished professor of National Taiwan University because of his contribution in the excellence of teaching and research.

Professor Wu’s main areas of interest are Helicobacter pylori-associated gastroduodenal diseases and gastrointestinal malignancy.

Dr Peter Wu graduated in Medicine from the University of New South Wales in 2006 and completed his training in adult gastroenterology in 2014. He was awarded a PhD in 2018 for thesis where he investigated several novel diagnostic and therapeutic tools in the management of swallowing disorders. In 2019, Peter undertook a fellowship at Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong, where he developed advanced therapeutic endoscopic skills with a focus in the third space endoscopy. During the same year, he commenced several ongoing international collaborative research projects evaluating novel therapeutic procedures as treatment for dysphagia. Peter currently works at St George Hospital, Sydney, where he serves as the director of the St George Motility Services, overseeing the clinical operation of the Swallow Clinic and GI Motility Laboratory.

Dr. Jia Yang received her MBBS and Master of Medicine from Zhejiang University, School of Medicine in 2013 and 2015. She completed internal medicine residency in 2017. She subsequently obtained her PhD from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2020.

Her research interests include risk factors, gut microbiota and treatment of colorectal cancer. Her research results have been presented as poster and oral presentation in ESMO Asia congress 2016 and Digestive Disease Week 2020 respectively. She was also awarded with Yu To Sang & Yu Shing Keung Memorial Fund Scholarship in 2020.

Dr. Yang is currently a research assistant in Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Dr. Byong Duk Ye is a Professor of Gastroenterology and of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine in Seoul, Korea. His research focus is on the epidemiology, clinical characteristics, treatment and outcomes of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) as well as in integrating clinical factors, biomarkers, and genetic markers to predict outcomes and response to therapies in IBD. He is working as the Director of the International Academic Exchange Committee of Korean Association for the Study of Intestinal Diseases and a member of the epidemiologic committee of Asian Organization for Crohn’s and Colitis. Dr. Ye earned his medical degree from Seoul National University College of Medicine in Korea, and earned his PhD degree at the Graduate School of Medicine, Seoul National University. He completed an internship, residency, and a clinical and research fellowship in Gastroenterology at the Seoul National University Hospital. Dr. Ye was a visiting scientist to the Cedars-Sinai F. Widjaja Foundation Inflammatory Bowel and Immunobiology Research Institute from 2014 to 2016. Dr. Ye has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles including in Lancet, Nature Genetics, Gut and Gastroenterology and is a reviewer of several scientific journals.

Jun Yu is Choh-Ming Li Professor of Medicine and Therapeutics, Assistant Dean of Faculty of Medicine, Director of Research Laboratory of Institute of Digestive Disease, and Associate Director of State Key Laboratory of Digestive Disease, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She serves as Council Member of American Gastrointestinal Association (AGA) Oncology (2017-2018) and Council Member of AGA Microbiome and Microbial Diseases (2018-present), USA. Her research interests being molecular pathogenesis, microbiome and diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets of gastrointestinal cancers. She has over 440 peer-reviewed publications (115 papers IF>10, h index=70). She obtained over 30 prestigious awards including Top 10 People in Global Intestinal Bacteria Study-Enthusiasm Daily 2019 List; He Liang He Li Science and Technology Progress Award 2018; AGA Council Research Mentor Award 2017; WuXi PharmaTech Life Science Award 2017; State Natural Science Award 2016; Croucher Senior Research Fellowship 2016; State Science and Technology Progress Award 2012.

Dr. Risheng Zhao graduated from Sun Yat-sen University with a master’s degree in surgery in 2014 and finished his PhD training in the State Key Laboratory of Digestive Diseases in the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2019. He is currently a clinical Postdoc fellow in Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery Center, the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University.

Dr. Zhao shows great interests in the gut microbiome and gastrointestinal cancer, especially in cancer prevention. He found that the gut microbes degraded aspirin and reduced its chemopreventive effects on colorectal cancer development. Dr. Zhao had orally presented his work in Digestive Disease Week 2019 and recognized as an Early Career Investigator by American Gastroenterology Association.