The International Digestive Disease Forum (IDDF) 2021 - Institute of Digestive Disease, CUHK

#IDDF2021

Speaker

Leon ADAMS

University of Western Australia, Australia

Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences

Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital

Consultant Hepatologist

Leon Adams is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Western Australia and Consultant Hepatologist at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital. His research areas include clinical and epidemiological aspects of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. He has spent fellowships at Mayo Clinic and the University of California, San Diego and is the co-lead of the international NAFLD Progression Consortium. He has published over 170 articles in his fields of interest and has served on various faculties for EASL, AASLD, AGA and the Gastroenterology Society of Australia.

Theresa ALENGHAT

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, USA

Associate Professor, Immunobiology Division

Theresa Alenghat is an Associate Professor in the Immunobiology Division at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. She received her veterinary degree and residency training at the University of Pennsylvania and did her PhD and post-doctoral work with Drs. Mitch Lazar and David Artis, respectively. She joined Cincinnati Children’s in 2014 and established a research
program to investigate molecular mechanisms that instruct the host-microbiota relationship, and how this level of regulation affects intestinal health, infection, and inflammatory conditions such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Her research includes investigation of interactions between intestinal microbiota and epigenomic pathways that regulate epithelial and immune cell homeostasis. Her work in this area has been published in multiple high profile journals including Nature and Gastroenterology, and Dr. Alenghat has been successful in securing funding from NIH, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, Pew Charitable Trust, and additional foundations.

Yinon BEN-NERIAH

Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel

Professor of Immunology and Cancer Research
Vice Dean for Research, Faculty of Medicine

Ben-neriah Yinon, MD (Tel Aviv University) PhD (Weizmann Institute), postdoc with Dr. David Baltimore at MIT, is a Professor of Immunology and Cancer Research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Vice Dean for research at the Faculty of Medicine. Professor Yinon is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, an elected EMBO member, recipient of the Landau (Mifal Hapais, 1993), Teva Founders’ (2007) the Rappaport (2016) and EMET (2019) prizes for biomedical research, co-director of the SignGene German Israeli PhD program and Adjunct Professor in Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Professor Yinon studies cancer development and therapy. Among his main achievements are: determination of the structure of the CML oncoprotein Bcr-Abl and developing a prototype targeted cancer therapy based on Bcr-Abl inhibition; deciphering key components in the NF-B and Wnt signaling pathway, which have a major impact in cancer; identifying NF-B as the first molecular link between inflammation and cancer; methods and mechanism for activation of WT and mutant p53, and developing a new class of small molecule kinase inhibitors with profound therapeutic effects in highly aggressive acute leukemia.

Yin CAO

Washington University School of Medicine, USA

Associate Professor of Surgery, Department of Surgery

Yin Cao is a cancer epidemiologist and Associate Professor of Surgery and Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis. She was trained in biology, economics, and molecular/nutritional/clinical epidemiology. She received her MPH from Columbia University and ScD from Harvard University. Her ongoing work incorporates high-throughput technologies (genomics, microbiome, accelerometers) into large-scale collaborative epidemiological and clinical studies to investigate the etiology and emerging risk factors for early-onset cancers throughout the life course, with a particular focus on colorectal cancer. She has also been interested in developing personalized screening strategies for younger adults using microsimulation modeling.

Andrew CHAN

Harvard Medical School, USA

Professor of Medicine

Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, USA

Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases

Massachusetts General Hospital, USA

Chief, Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit
Director of Epidemiology, MGH Cancer Center

Andrew Chan, MD, MPH is a gastroenterologist, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Chief of the Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Director of Epidemiology at the MGH Cancer Center. Professor Chan is a leading investigator in cancer prevention, supported as an Outstanding Investigator of the National Cancer Institute, Team Leader for the Stand Up to Cancer Gastric Cancer Interception Team, and by grants from the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and the National Institute on Aging. An elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians, he has published over 500 papers in the field of colorectal cancer and other chronic digestive diseases. Professor Chan is a section editor for Gastroenterology, the Clinical Research Councillor of the AGA, and chair of the Molecular Epidemiology Group of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

Shannon CHAN

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Assistant Professor, Division of Upper Gastrointestinal & Metabolic Surgery

Shannon Chan is currently an Assistant Professor in the Division of Upper Gastrointestinal & Metabolic Surgery of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2007. She completed general surgical training and received fellowships of the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong and Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 2014. Dr. Chan’s interest is in gastric and esophageal cancers, mainly focusing in the laparoscopic and robotic approach. She did her overseas training in National Cancer Centre in Tokyo, Yonsei University in Seoul and also Amsterdam Medical Centre in Amsterdam. Her research interests include upper gastrointestinal surgical oncology and advanced diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy especially in interventional endoscopic ultrasound. She also has special interests in peritoneal surface malignancy and has started a multidisciplinary team for these rare, yet important group of patients. She is a member of the stomach and duodenal diseases subcommittee of the World Endoscopy Organisation (WEO) and is a reviewer for Digestive Endoscopy and Surgical Endoscopy. She has published over 20 peer-reviewed journals.

Apart from her research interest, Dr. Chan has also devoted herself to humanitarian aid work. In 2014, she joined the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, also named Doctors without borders). MSF is an international humanitarian non-governmental organization working in war-torn and under-developed regions. Dr. Chan joined their surgical missions to South Sudan from Oct 2016 - Dec 2016 and to Yemen from Dec 2019 to Feb 2020. After her return, she has further affirmed her commitment to providing humanitarian aid to the less developed parts of the world.

Alfred CHENG

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Assistant Dean (Research), Faculty of Medicine
Professor and Chief (Cancer Biology and Experimental Therapeutics), School of Biomedical Sciences

Alfred Cheng is a Professor in the School of Biomedical Sciences and Assistant Dean (Research) of the Faculty of Medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). He completed his Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. Joseph Sung at CUHK in 2002. After his postdoctoral training from Prof. Tim Huang at the Ohio State University, he joined the Institute of Digestive Disease at CUHK as a Research Assistant Professor at 2007. He has received >20 academic awards, including the Most Promising Young Researcher Award from the Hong Kong Government at 2014 and the CUHK Young Researcher Award at 2015 and 2019. Prof. Cheng has published in international journals including Molecular Cell, Nature Genetics, Science Translational Medicine, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Nature Communications, Gut, Journal of Hepatology and Gastroenterology. His current research focuses on the epigenetic and transcriptional regulation of tumor microenvironment, aiming at enhancement of cancer immunotherapy.

Philip CHIU

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Professor, Chief of Division of Upper GI & Metabolic Surgery, Department of Surgery
Professor, Institute of Digestive Disease, State Key Laboratory for Digestive Disease
Director, Multi-Scale Medical Robotics Center
Director, CUHK Jockey Club Minimally Invasive Surgical Skills Center
Director, Chow Yuk Ho Technology Center for Innovative Medicine
Associate Dean (External Affairs), Faculty of Medicine

Hospital Authority, Hong Kong

Director of Endoscopy Center, Prince of Wales Hospital
Cluster Director of Endoscopy, New Territories East Cluster
Cluster Service Team Head of Upper GI & Metabolic Surgery, New Territories East Cluster

Philip Chiu graduated from Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) 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 from CUHK in 2009.

Professor Chiu was first to perform endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) for treatment of early GI cancers in Hong Kong in 2004. In 2010, he performed the first Per-oral Endoscopic Myotomy (POEM) in Hong Kong and subsequently pioneered the world’s first robotic gastric ESD in 2011, followed by world first robotic colorectal ESD in 2020.

His research interests include esophageal cancer management, minimally invasive and robotic esophagectomy, novel endoscopic technologies for diagnosis of early GI cancers, endoscopic surgery as well as robotics for endoluminal surgery. He currently serves as co-editor of Endoscopy and subject editor of Surgical Endoscopy.

Professor Chiu has earned 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. 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 received the Gold Medal with Congratulations from Jury, 47th International Exhibitions of Inventions of Geneva in 2019 and Spirit of Hong Kong Award on Innovation in 2020.

Markus CORNBERG

Hannover Medical School, Germany

Deputy Director, Clinic for Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology

Centre for Individualised Infection Medicine, Germany

Director

Markus Cornberg is Professor Infectious Diseases with a focus on Hepatology and Deputy Director of the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology at Hannover Medical School, Germany. Since 2019, he is Clinical Director Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research and Director of the Centre for Individualized Infection Medicine (CIIM). Prof. Cornberg is Medical Executive Director of the German Liver Foundation. Since 2007, Prof. Cornberg has coordinated the German guideline on the management of hepatitis B virus infection. From 2017 to 2020, he served on the Scientific Committee and Governing Board of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL). He has been Associate Editor of the Journal of Hepatology since 2019. His basic science research focus is the investigation of cellular immune responses for disease progression and treatment response in patients with viral hepatitis. Prof. Cornberg has published >250 original scientific papers as well as review articles.

Emad EL-OMAR

University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

Professor of Medicine
Chair of Medicine, St George & Sutherland Clinical School

UNSW/St. George Hospital, Sydney, Australia

Director, Microbiome Research Centre

Emad 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, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He is the Editor in Chief of the journal Gut. His research interests include all aspects of the microbiome, inflammation driven GI cancer and IBD. He is the Director of the Microbiome Research Centre at UNSW/St George Hospital, Sydney.

Paul FEUERSTADT

Yale University, USA

Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine, School of Medicine

A native of Long Island, New York, Professor Feuerstadt attended the University of Pennsylvania where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology, with distinction in research and graduated Summa Cum Laude.

Following completion of his undergraduate training, Professor Feuerstadt attended the Weill Medical College of Cornell University in Manhattan, New York where he earned his Medical Doctor degree and stayed at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell medical center for his internship and residency in Internal Medicine. Following completion of his residency Professor Feuerstadt then moved on to the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, New York for his clinical fellowship training.

Throughout Professor Feuerstadt’s training and practice he has been actively involved in research and other academic pursuits. His areas of interest include chronic diarrheal syndromes with a specific focus on Clostridiodes difficile infection, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and ischemic diseases of the gut. He has presented his research extensively at national meetings and has authored and co-authored many manuscripts, textbook chapters and online modules. Another passion of Professor Feuerstadt’s is teaching, frequently giving lectures locally, regionally and nationally. Professor Feuerstadt founded a website entitled "Everythingcdifficile.com" as an educational resource for patients and providers about this infectious disease. Finally, he is passionate about mentoring the fellows in the Division of Digestive Disease at Yale-New Haven Hospital where he holds a clinical appointment as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine.

His clinical practice is his ultimate passion filling the majority of his work time as he sees a broad spectrum of patients with gastrointestinal and hepatic disease. Professor Feuerstadt is affiliated with the St. Raphael campus of Yale-New Haven Hospital, Yale-New Haven Hospital, and Milford Hospital.

Edward GANE

University of Auckland, New Zealand

Professor of Medicine

Auckland City Hospital, New Zealand

Deputy Director, New Zealand Liver Unit

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. Edward 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 New Zealand.

Subrata GHOSH

University College Cork, Ireland

Chair of Medicine, College of Medicine and Health
Head of Department, College of Medicine and Health

Subrata Ghosh is a Chair of Medicine and Head of the Department at College of Medicine and Health University College Cork in Ireland and a Honorary Professor of Medicine of Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy at University of Birmingham in UK.

Professor Ghosh interests are in inflammatory bowel disease and immunopathogenesis of inflammation. His current work is focused on immune cell plasticity, especially in dendritic cells, macrophages and T cells. He actively involved in novel targeted therapies in inflammatory bowel disease and early discovery compounds. He also involved in clinical research on novel tools to address quality of life such as PRISM and IBD disk. He has published over 510 research manuscripts with a h index of 95 (47,000 citations) has delivered over 700 international lectures including named lectures.

Alisa HART

St. Mark’s Hospital, United Kingdom

Director, Inflammatory Bowel Disease Research

St. Mark's Academic Institute, United Kingdom

Sub-Dean and Consultant Gastroenterologist

Imperial College London, United Kingdom

Professor of Practice

Professor Ailsa Hart studied medicine at Oxford University and was awarded a First Class Honours Degree in 1992, together with the George Pickering Prize for Medicine and Surgery proxime accessit in 1995 and additional prizes for outstanding achievements. She achieved Membership of the Royal College of Physicians in 1998 and subsequently Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians. She trained in Gastroenterology and General Internal Medicine in London and also received training at the Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam. She achieved her PhD with Imperial College in 2005, funded by a Wellcome Trust Fellowship. She was appointed to the consultant staff of St Mark’s Hospital in 2008 and became a Clinical Senior Lecturer at Imperial College London, having been awarded a highly competitive Clinical Senior Lectureship by the Higher Education Funding Council for England. She subsequently achieved the title Professor of Practice with Imperial College in 2016.

She is Associate Editor of the popular gastroenterology journal Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, has published two books, with “Inflammatory Bowel Disease – an Evidence-based Practical Guide” selling over 8000 copies, and more than 130 papers and book chapters.

Professor Ailsa Hart delivered her inaugural lecture on “Management of inflammatory bowel disease: present and future” as Honorary Skou Professor at Aarhus University, Denmark on 13th January 2020. This is a prestigious title with Aarhus University honouring internationally esteemed researchers with a goal of fostering closer ties between elite institutions. The tile was created in honour of Nobel Laureate Professor Jens Skou with the aim of recognising the importance of international research collaboration. In total, 43 top researchers from international universities have been appointed. Professor Hart is the only Gastroenterologist in the world to achieve this honour.

Mathias HEIKENWÄLDER

German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Germany

Department Head

Mathias Heikenwälder is a trained molecular biologist, with expertise in immunology and a strong link to translational research evoked by 10 years of work and expertise in a Pathology Institution (Clinical Pathology, University Hospital Zurich). Since October 2015 he is Department Head at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg focusing on the link between chronic inflammation and cancer.

The laboratory aims at understanding the different immune signatures of chronic inflammatory human diseases using relevant mouse models - with the final aim to generate models of chronic inflammation potentially used for pre-clinical research. Thus, it focuses on comparative studies of human and animal model tissues, recapitulating human disease on a histo-pathological and pathophysiological level. The laboratory engage in classical molecular biology techniques complemented with sophisticated ways to receive as much information from tissue samples through histology (e.g. light microscopy / immune fluorescence / FISH / in situ hybridization), other in vivo imaging techniques (e.g. MRI) as well as through FACS analyses for tissue homogenates. Still at the same time the laboratory is also interested in the systemic functional effects of pathologies and the interplay between several affected non-lymphoid tissues and the immune system.

Finally, testing several therapeutic compounds in a single use but also combinatorial fashion is one of its goals employing established and stratified pre-clinical mouse models.

Jie HONG

Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Mainland China

Principal Investigator, Shanghai Institute of Digestive Disease, State Key Laboratory for Oncogenes and Related Genes

Jie Hong, works as Principal Investigator in Renji Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and Shanghai Institute of Digestive Disease, State Key Laboratory for Oncogenes and Related Genes. The research project of her group mainly focuses on digestive disease research. In recent years, Dr. Hong is devoted to study the molecular mechanisms of colorectal cancer/adenoma currence and intestinal inflammation by means of biochemical and molecular biology analysis and high-throughput sequencing technology. She has authored and co-authored more than 18 papers including Cell, Cancer Discovery, Gut, Nature Communications, Molecular Cancer, Cancer Res and Clin Cancer Res. She has acquired the second prize of national scientific and technological progress of China, and other national and provincial awards support.

Naoki HOSOE

Keio University School of Medicine, Japan

Associate Professor, Center for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Endoscopy

Naoki Hosoe is Associate Professor of Center for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Endoscopy, Keio University School of Medicine. He graduated from the Keio University School of Medicine in 1997. He worked as a resident of internal medicine in Keio University Hospital from Apr. 1997 to Mar. 1998. He received Ph.D. in 2004. He became an assistant of the Department of gastroenterology at Keio University School of Medicine in 2007. He was promoted to Assistant Professor at Center for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Endoscopy, School of Medicine Keio university in 2015. He has been engaged in the endoscopy and clinical study of endoscopy. He has focused his scientific interests on enteroscopy and video capsule endoscopy.

Rakesh KALAPALA

AIG Hospitals, India

Senior Consultant Gastroenterologist
Director (Endoscopy), Centre for Obesity and Metabolic Therapy

Rakesh Kalapala is a Medical Gastroenterologist committed towards pursuing ideal clinical practices utilizing advanced technological, scientific and research developments for alleviating the symptoms, enhancing the quality of life and ensuring overall well-being of patients.

He is currently a Senior Consultant Gastroenterologist and a Director (Endoscopy) for the Center for Obesity & Metabolic Therapy at AIG Hospitals.

His specific areas of interest are Endotherapy in GERD, Bariatric and Metabolic Endoscopy.

In addition, Dr. Kalapala has around 60 publications in various International peer reviewed journals.

Pradermchai KONGKAM

King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Thailand

Director, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Excellence Center

Pradermchai Kongkam is a gastroenterologist who has special interest in both diagnostic and therapeutic EUS. He is the current director of gastrointestinal endoscopy excellence center of the King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital. He has published several EUS related articles. One of his recent publications is about using a combination of ERCP and EUS-guided biliary drainage (CERES) in patients with malignant hilar biliary obstruction. In this meeting, the audience will have a chance to listen to his lecture about endoscopic biliary drainage for malignant hilar biliary obstruction.

Louis LAU

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Honorary Clinical Assistant Professor, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine and Therapeutics

Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong

Resident Specialist, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine and Therapeutics

Louis Lau graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2012, receiving numerous prizes including the Dean’s List along with other scholarships. He joined the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Prince of Wales Hospital after graduation. He obtained his specialist registration in Gastroenterology and Hepatology in 2019. He is currently serving as a Resident Specialist and Honorary Clinical Assistant Professor in Prince of Wales Hospital.

Dr. Lau has special research interests in the early diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal cancers, advanced endoscopy and gastrointestinal bleeding. He has published peer-reviewed articles including papers in The New England Journal of Medicine, Gastroenterology and Gut. He was awarded the Early Career Investigator from American Gastroenterological Association in Digestive Disease Week 2019. He was the recipient of the Gold Medal, Best Thesis Award from the Hong Kong College of Physicians in 2019. He was nominated as a Distinguished Young Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine in 2020. He was the faculty member of the Asian Novel Bio-Imaging and Intervention Group since 2021.

Rupert LEONG

Concord Hospital, Australia

Director of Endoscopy
Head, Inflammatory Bowel Disease Service

University of Sydney, Australia

Clinical Professor of Medicine

Rupert Leong is a Specialist Gastroenterologist, Director of Endoscopy and Head of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Service at Concord Hospital, Clinical Professor of Medicine at University of Sydney and UNSW, and founding director of IBD Sydney, Australia. He has an international reputation for the management of inflammatory bowel diseases. Prof Leong has made a substantial contribution to research with over 150 high quality scientific journals publications. Amongst these are senior authorship of national and international consensus guidelines in Australia and in the Asia-Pacific region. His service includes executive positions in the Research Committee of the Gastroenterological Society of Australia and section editor of the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. He is an executive member of a number of government bodies including the Agency for Clinical Innovation of NSW Health nominated for expertise in IBD and the Cancer Council of Australia Working Party on the revision of the clinical practice guidelines for the prevention, early detection and management of colorectal cancer. Professor Leong was awarded the American Gastroenterological Association Fellowship by invitation on the basis of research excellence in 2012 and the UNSW Paper of the Year Prize in 2015.

Qing LI

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Postdoc Fellow, Department of Anaesthesia & Intensive Care

Qing Li received her MBBS and Master of Medicine from Xi’an Jiao Tong University in 2015 and 2017. After which, she finished her Ph.D. training in the Department of Anaesthesia & Intensive Care and State Key Laboratory of Digestive Diseases at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2020.

Her research interest is the potential protective effect of probiotics in colorectal cancer. Her research results have been presented as an oral presentation in Digestive Disease Week 2020 and accepted as a cover story for publication in Gastroenterology in March 2021. She was also awarded with Dragon Culture Ph.D. Scholarships for Medical Studies 2019/20 and she is also an RGC postdoctoral fellowship scheme awardee in 2021.

Dr. Li is currently a postdoc fellow in the Department of Anaesthesia & Intensive Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Young-suk LIM

Asan Medical Center, Korea

Professor

University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Korea

Vice Dean

Korean Association for the Study of the Liver (KASL), Korea

Secretary General

Young-suk Lim is a Professor at Asan Medical Center, affiliated by the University of Ulsan College of Medicine in Korea. He graduated from Seoul National University College of Medicine in 1992 and completed the Clinical Research Training Program at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, USA in 2008.

Professor Lim is currently the Vice Dean of University of Ulsan College of Medicine and the Secretary General of the Korean Association for the Study of the Liver (KASL).

Professor Lim was awarded the Emerging Leader Lecturer by the Asian Pacific Digestive Week, Taipei, Taiwan, in 2017; and the official commendation by the Ministry of Health and Welfare of Korean Government in 2017 and 2020. He also received the Professor of the Year Award of University of Ulsan in 2018.

Professor Lim’s research interests include management of hepatitis B and surveillance for hepatocellular carcinoma.

Weixin LIU

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

PhD student, Department of Medicine & Therapeutics and State Key Laboratory of Digestive Diseases

Weixin Liu received his bachelor degree from University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in 2015. During 2015 and 2018, he got his master degree in Chinese Academy of Science. He is now under his Ph.D. training in the Department of Medicine & Therapeutics and State Key Laboratory of Digestive Diseases at the Chinese University of Hong Kong after 2020.

His research interest is the intro-tumour microbial heterogeneity in colorectal cancer. His research results have been presented as an oral presentation in United European Gastroenterology Week 2020 and accepted for publication in Gastroenterology in March 2021.

Anna LOK

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Dame Sheila Sherlock Distinguished University Professor
Alice Lohrman Andrews Research Professor of Hepatology
Professor of Internal Medicine
Director of Clinical Hepatology
Assistant Dean for Clinical Research

Anna Lok graduated from the University of Hong Kong Medical School. She completed her Hepatology training in London under Dame Sheila Sherlock at the Royal Free Hospital in London. She served as faculty at the University of Hong Kong until she moved to the United States in 1992. She joined the University of Michigan in 1995 and is currently the Director of the Hepatology Program and Assistant Dean for Clinical Research.

Professor Lok’s research focuses on natural history and treatment of hepatitis B and C. She has also conducted research on prevention and early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma and risk factors for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease progression and outcomes. Professor Lok has published more than 550 papers on viral hepatitis and liver diseases including the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) guidelines on “Hepatitis B”.

She served as Associate Editor of HEPATOLOGY in 2002-6, co-Editor of Journal of Viral Hepatitis in 2007-9, Senior Associate Editor of GASTROENTEROLOGY in 2011-2012, and President of AASLD in 2017.

Professor Lok has mentored more than 50 fellows and junior faculty from all over the world, many of whom have become full professors and heads of departments.

She received many awards throughout her career including the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Hepatitis B Foundation in 2008, the Distinguished Service Award from the AASLD in 2011, the William Beaumont Prize in Gastroenterology from the American Gastroenterological Association in 2016, a Gold Medal Award from the Canadian Association for the Study of the Liver and an Hon DSc from the University of Hong Kong in 2017, an International Recognition Award from the European Association for the Study of the Liver in 2018, and a Distinguished University Professorship from the University of Michigan in 2019.

Rohit LOOMBA

University of California San Diego, USA

Director of Hepatology

Rohit Loomba is a Professor of Medicine (with tenure), Director of Hepatology, at University of California at San Diego. He is an internationally recognized thought leader in the management of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and has established a thriving and vibrant center for clinical and research in NAFLD at UCSD.

Professor Loomba is the Founding Director of the UCSD NAFLD Research Center. Along with his collaborators, he has led several innovative applications such as establishment of MRI-PDFF as a non-invasive biomarker of treatment response in early phase trials in NASH, which has now been adopted in more than 50 clinical trials conducted worldwide. He holds two patents on non-invasive biomarkers of NAFLD and fibrosis.

His research is funded by the National Institutes of Health including R01, U01, P30 and P01 grant mechanisms, Foundation of NIH, National Science Foundation as well as several investigator initiated research projects funded by the industry. He is the Principal Investigator, UCSD, for the NIDDK-sponsored NASH Clinical Research Network. He served as the elected Chair of the NAFLD, Special Interest Group of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. And is the elected member to the National Board of Directors of the American Liver Foundation.

He serves on the Editorial Board of Gastroenterology, Journal of Hepatology, GUT and Nature Reviews in Gastroenterology and Hepatology. He served as the Deputy Editor of HEPATOLOGY, the official journal of the AASLD, from 2017-2021.

Professor Loomba has published more than 300 manuscripts and has an H-index of 87. He is among the top 1% of the globally highly cited scientists across all fields in 2019 and 2020 by Web of Science. He is an elected member of American Society of Clinical Investigation.

UCSD Gastroenterology and Hepatology were listed as the number 1 research and education program in the World by the US World News ranking in 2020.

Rashid LUI

Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong

Associate Consultant, Department of Medicine and Therapeutics

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.

Lukas MAGER

University of Calgary, Canada

Postdoctoral Fellow, Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases

Lukas Mager worked in two research groups in Vienna studying colorectal cancer (CRC) cells and allergic immunopathologies headed by Prof. Brigitte Marian and Prof. Winfried Pickl, respectively. For his MD/PhD studies he moved to Bern (Switzerland) to join the lab of Dr. Philippe Krebs. There, he combined his previous research experience to investigate the interactions of the immune system with cancer cells, gaining expertise in tumor immunology particularly in CRC and myeloproliferative neoplasms, a type of blood cancer. Then, he joined Dr. Kathy McCoy’s research group in Calgary (Canada) in April 2017 were he currently works as a postdoctoral fellow. There he gaining insight in the field of microbiology and how the microbiome can impact on the efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade in cancer. His goal is to improve the efficacy of existing therapies and identifying new therapeutic targets in cancer.

Joyce MAK

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine and Therapeutics

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 and gut microbiota. She already has 2 book chapters on IBD and more than 30 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.

Siew NG

Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, Hong Kong

Director, Microbiota I-Center (MagIC)

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Assistant Dean (Development), Faculty of Medicine
Professor, Department of Medicine and Therapeutics
Associate Director, Centre for Gut Microbiota Research

Siew Ng is Director of Microbiota I-Center (MagIC) at Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, Professor of Medicine, Assistant Dean (Development) and Associate Director of Centre for Gut Microbiota Research at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She received her Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery degree from the University of London and the Doctor of Philosophy degree (PhD) from Imperial College London. She is Fellow of the American Gastroenterology Association, Royal College of Physicians of London, Edinburg and Hong Kong. Her research focuses on microbiome-related health and diseases including inflammation, infections, cancer, and childhood diseases such as eczema and autism. Her work aims to transform microbiome diagnostics and therapeutics for early disease and cancer detection and health restoration. In 2017, she established Asia’s First Microbiota Transplantation and Research Centre and her group recently discovered a novel oral microbiome immunity formula that helps rebalance gut microbiota and boost immunity during the COVID-19 pandemic. This invention has been tested in clinical study and is available to the wider community. She and her team has also developed a non-invasive stool test for prediction of recurrent adenoma. Prof Ng was awarded First-class award in Natural Sciences and Higher Education Outstanding Scientific Research Output Awards (Science and Technology) in 2020 from the Ministry of Education, China.

Kazuo OHTSUKA

Tokyo Medical and Dental University Medical Hospital, Japan

Professor

Kazuo Ohtsuka is a Physician and Endoscopist. He is a Professor of Tokyo Medical and Dental University Medical Hospital. He graduated from Niigata University School of Medicine in 1988. He completed residency in Internal Medicine at Akita Red Cross Hospital, and he graduated the Niigata University Graduate School in 1995. He worked as the faculty at Showa University Northern Yokohama Hospital for 11 years. He participated in the development of capsule endoscopy and single-balloon endoscopy. In 2012, he has moved to Tokyo Medical and Dental University, and focused on endoscopic diagnosis and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. He also serves as a director of The Japanese Society of Small Intestinal Disease and The Japanese Association for Capsule Endoscopy.

David ONG

Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore

Gastroenterologist

David Ong is a Gastroenterologist at Mount Elizabeth Hospital, Singapore.

Dr. Ong is experienced in treating and managing conditions of the stomach, bowel and liver, and his subspecialty is in treating inflammatory bowel diseases (such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease) with a focus on colorectal cancer surveillance and gut microbiome.

Dr. Ong was the Head of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the National University Hospital (NUH) and remains as a Visiting Senior Consultant.

Whilst at NUH, he held the positions of divisional director of clinical services, director of risk and values at the NUH cluster, and associate chairman of the medical board (medicolegal risk).

He holds an Adjunct Associate Professorship at National University of Singapore (NUS)’s Department of Medicine and is also an Advisor and Chair of the nomination committee of the international council.

He serves as the incoming president of the Gastroenterology Society of Singapore and the honorary secretary of the Chapter of Gastroenterology, Academy of Medicine. In addition, he has served as a member of the Singapore Medical Council Complaints Panel since 2016.

Dr. Ong helped set up the inflammatory bowel disease unit at NUH and has published widely in this area. He has also been a speaker at local and global conferences on the topic.

Massimo PINZANI

University College London, United Kingdom

Professor of Medicine
Clinical Translational Hepatologist
Sheila Sherlock Chair of Hepatology
Director, UCL Institute for Liver and Digestive Health, Division of Medicine

Massimo Pinzani is Professor of Medicine at University College London (UCL), London, United Kingdom. He is a Clinical and Translational Hepatologist, Sheila Sherlock Chair of Hepatology and Director of the UCL Institute for Liver and Digestive Health, Division of Medicine. He is one of the pioneers in the research dedicated to cellular and molecular mechanisms of liver fibrosis and relative diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. Current research is centred on regenerative medicine and in particular on the development of extracellular matrix scaffold of liver, pancreas and small intestine for cell bioengineering and 3D disease modelling. Professor Pinzani research activity is summarised in more than 250 original peer-reviewed publications (H Index of 91, Scopus). He has served in the governing and scientific boards of major international organization in the area of Hepatology and Gastroenterology, and as Editor in Chief and Associate Editor of top peer reviewed international journals in the area of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. He served as Educational Councilor and member of the governing board of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) (2015-2019). He is currently Chairman of the EASL Consortium for Regenerative Hepatology and co-founder of Engitix Ltd, an UCL spin-off company dedicated to tissue engineering and regenerative medicine with particular focus on the liver and digestive tract.

Gerhard ROGLER

Zürich University Hospital, Switzerland

Professor of Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Head, Department of Gastroenterology & Hepatology

Gerhard Rogler, MD, is Professor of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and Head of the Department of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Zürich University Hospital, Switzerland.

The main research interest of Professor Rogler is translational research to better understand the unmet needs in the IBD field, especially in terms of intestinal stricture and fistula formation. His research group has developed new models for intestinal fibrosis and achieved a novel understanding of fistula pathophysiology.

He is PI of the Swiss IBD Cohort Study, former member of the ECCO governing board, member of the IOIBD and the German Academy of Science (Leopoldina). Professor Rogler has authored over 600 peer-reviewed articles.

Yasushi SANO

Kansai Medical University, Osaka, Japan

Clinical Professor

Sano Hospital, Kobe, Japan

Director and Chief, Gastrointestinal Center

Yasushi Sano is the Director and Chief of Gastrointestinal Center & iMEC (Institute of Minimally-invasive Endoscopic Care), Sano hospital founded in 1888. He graduated Kansai Medical University, Osaka, Japan in 1991 and learned general internal medicine as resident at 2nd Department of Internal Medicine, Kobe University School of Medicine (1992-1993). From April 2021, he became a clinical professor at his alma mater, Kansai Medical University.

Professor Sano is one of world leaders in the field of diagnostic and therapeutic colonoscopy. He showed many lectures regarding image enhanced endoscopy (IEE) technique and demonstrated endoscopy live with EMR/ESD technique at several countries. He skillfully uses magnifying colonoscopy with advanced imaging technique. Noteworthy, he was a pioneer of narrow band imaging (NBI) system. He firstly reported usefulness of the NBI colonoscopy in 2004 (Narrow-band imaging in the diagnosis of colorectal mucosal lesions: a pilot study. Endoscopy, 2004) and proposed the Sano’s vessel classification on NBI colonoscopy in 2006, and JNET classification in 2016.

He is a member of several advisory b oards including Gastroenterological Endoscopy (JSGE,JGA, Japan), Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (GIE, USA), and post-international board of World Journal Gastroenterology (WJG, China), and World Journal Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (WJG, China). He is an international reviewer on Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (GIE).

Thomas SAVIDES

UC San Diego Health, San Diego, USA

Chief Experience Officer

University of California, San Diego, USA

Chief Gastroenterology (interim)
Distinguished Professor of Clinical Medicine

Thomas Savides, MD graduated from Harvard College and earned his medical degree from UC San Diego School of Medicine. He did his fellowship in gastroenterology and a residency in internal medicine at UCLA Medical Center. His advanced endoscopy training was at Indiana University with Dr. Robert Hawes.

He is a nationally recognized expert in endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) and therapeutic endoscopy. He founded and is the director of UC San Diego Health's interventional GI endoscopy program. He has authored more than 200 publications, including original research articles, invited reviews, and book chapters. He is the editor of a textbook and atlas on endoscopic ultrasound.

Professor Savides is the Chief Experience Officer at UC San Diego Health. He is responsible for the strategy, leadership and implementation of the plan to improve the total health care experience of patients, families, providers and team members. His other leadership positions include the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Board of Governors (2007-2010), vice chair of strategic affairs in the Department of Medicine, and clinical services chief in the Division of Gastroenterology at UC San Diego School of Medicine.

Dr Savides has received many awards including the 2019 ASGE Master Endoscopist Award and the 2020 inaugural group designation of a Master of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (MASGE). He has been named annually by Castle Connolly as one of “America’s Top Doctors” and “America’s Top Doctors for Cancer Care”. He has been named by Becker’s Hospital Review as “25 Hospital and Health System CXOs to Know in 2020”.

Kewin SIAH

National University Hospital, Singapore

Consultant, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine

National University of Singapore, Singapore

Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine
Clinical lecturer, Department of Medicine

Dr. Kewin Siah is a Gastroenterologist specialised in Functional Gastrointestinal Diseases (FGID). He completed his specialist training at National University Hospital and underwent further colonoscopy training at Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine in Japan, as part of the JSGE research fellowship award. He also received the NMRC award to perform to study Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) in Oppenheimer Neurobiology of Stress Centre in UCLA. He is currently running the Gastro Motility Lab and a multi-disciplinary IBS Clinic in NUH.

Dr. Siah is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Medicine, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. He has been regularly speaking at various local and regional conferences on FGID, and has had multiple publications in international peer-reviewed journals. He is now the Secretary General of Asian Neurogastroenterology and Motility Association, President of Singapore’s IBS Support Group and Executive Committee of National Foundation Digestive Disease.

Raymond TANG

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Director, S.H. Ho Center for Digestive Health
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine and Therapeutics

Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong

Deputy Director, Endoscopy Center

Raymond 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, 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 an Assistant Professor at the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Deputy Director of endoscopy center at the Prince of Wales Hospital, and Director of the S.H. Ho Center for Digestive Health.

Anthony TEOH

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Deputy Director of Endoscopy
Professor, Department of Surgery

Anthony Teoh is currently the Deputy Director of Endoscopy and 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. 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).

Professor Teoh 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 upper GI 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 also an Associate Editor for Digestive Endoscopy and Techniques in Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. He is also in the editorial board for several internationally renowned journals including 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 123 journal papers and written 14 book chapters. He is currently a Consultant for Boston Scientific, Cook, Taewoong and Microtech Medical Corporations.

Norah TERRAULT

University of Southern California, USA

Chief, Department of Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Keck School of Medicine

Norah Terrault is Professor of Medicine and Chief of Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases at the Keck School of Medicine at University of Southern California. She received her MD from the University of Alberta and completed fellowships in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology at the University of Toronto and a Masters in Public Health at the University of California at Berkeley. Professor Terrault has focused her clinical and research activities on viral hepatitis and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, especially in special populations including those with cirrhosis and those with transplants. In addition to multiple clinical trials related to preventing and treating chronic hepatitis viral hepatitis and fatty liver, Professor Terrault has been PI on multiple NIH-funded studies, including the current NIH-supported HBV clinical research network (HBRN) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis clinical research network (NASH CRN). She has authored 330 peer-reviewed manuscripts, editorials, invited reviews as well as US national guidelines for treatment of chronic hepatitis B and C. She is past Associate Editor for Hepatology and Deputy Editor for Liver Transplantation and co-edited Zakim and Boyer’s textbook in hepatology. She is the Founder of ECHO-Plus, a multifaceted program to train and support primary care physicians in California to care for patients with hepatitis. She has a long history of mentoring fellows and junior faculty in clinical research and is passionate about creating research support and opportunities for the next generation of GI/Hepatology investigators. Professor Terrault was recently elected as Councilor to the AASLD governing board and will serve as president in 2023.

Alexander THOMPSON

University of Melbourne, Australia

Director, Department of Gastroenterology

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 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.

David WEINBERG

Fox Chase Cancer Center, USA

Chair, Department of Medicine
Audrey Weg Schaus and Geoffrey Alan Weg Chair in Medical Science

David Weinberg’s research centers on the prevention and control of gastrointestinal malignancies with a particular interest in biomarkers, chemoprevention, the cost effectiveness of clinical care and in novel methods to promote cancer screening utilization. He currently holds research support from the National Institutes of Health, the pharmaceutical industry, and philanthropic organizations. He is the author of more than 200 peer reviewed manuscripts and sits on the editorial boards of several biomedical journals. Starting in 2022 he will be the new Editor-in-Chief of Gastroenterology (along with Paul Moayyedi).

In addition to research, Dr. Weinberg continues an active clinical practice in Gastroenterology, winning multiple “top doctor” awards. In addition, he serves as the Chief Medical Officer of the Temple University Health System’s Office of International Health. Beyond activities at Fox Chase he has been appointed to leadership roles on national committees for a range of groups including the American Board of Internal Medicine, the National Cancer Institute, the American College of Physicians (ACP) and the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA).

Dennis WONG

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Research Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine and Therapeutics

Dennis Wong obtained his BSc (2003-2005) and M.Phil. (2005-2007) degrees from the University of Hong Kong, before pursuing a Ph.D. in the University of Leeds, UK in 2008 and graduating in 2011. After two and a half years of postdoctoral training at Stony Brook University, NY, USA, Dr. Wong joined the Chinese University of Hong Kong in October, 2013, as Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics and a member of the State Key Laboratory of Digestive Disease. His research interests are primarily in the field of gastrointestinal cancers, trying to understand their molecular basis and develop therapeutic approaches to inhibit tumorigenesis, ultimately contributing to improved patient care. He has published over 78 papers in peer-reviewed international journals including Gastroenterology, Science Translational Medicine, Cancer Research, Oncogene and Seminars in Cancer Biology. He has also been invited to speak in national and international conferences, including the Digestive Disease Week and United European Gastroenterology Week. His work is supported by external competitive grants from the Research Grant Council-General Research Fund (RGC-GRF), Health and Medical Research Fund (HMRF), National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).

Florence WONG

University of Toronto, Canada

Full Professor, Department of Medicine

Toronto General Hospital, Ontario, Canada

Staff Hepatologist

Florence Wong, MD is a Full Professor at the University of Toronto and staff Hepatologist at the Toronto General Hospital, Ontario, Canada. She received her medical degree from the University of Melbourne, Australia and completed her postgraduate training in Australia and in Toronto, Canada.

Apart from caring for a large population of patients with advanced liver cirrhosis, Dr. Wong has been active in research in the pathogenesis of portal hypertension, ascites formation, liver-kidney interaction, including the development of hepatorenal syndrome, and renal failure in cirrhosis for the past 28 years. She has received research funding from various funding agencies including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Canadian Liver Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

She has been the Secretary of the International Ascites Club, organizing two international meetings on the complications of ascites, She also held the position as the Chair of the Education Committee of the Canadian Association for the Study of the Liver. Recently, she served as the Chair of the “Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure Special Interest Group” of the American Association for the Study of the Liver, and organizer of the Single Topic Symposium of Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure. Currently, she is the Deputy Editor of Liver Transplantation. In addition, she is a regular grant reviewer for various international funding agencies including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the National Institutions of Health of the USA, the Wellcome Trust of the United Kingdom, Swiss National Science Foundation, The Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development and German Research Foundation. She is also the recipient of the Gold Medal from the Canadian Liver Foundation and the Canadian Association for the Study of the Liver for her contribution to academia in Hepatology.

She has published widely on the topics related to ascites, and renal dysfunction in cirrhosis. She has more than 200 peer-reviewed publications as well as contributing regular reviews, book chapters and editorials on similar topics. She is a member of the writing committees to write the guidelines for the management of refractory ascites and for the management of acute on chronic liver failure for the American Association for the Study of the Liver. She is also a member of the writing committee for the treatment guidelines for acute on chronic liver failure for the American College of Gastroenterology. She has acted as consultant for the pharmaceutical and device industries for clinical studies on ascites and renal dysfunction in cirrhosis, especially on the use of terlipressin for hepatorenal syndrome and the use of an automated low-flow ascites (ALFA) pump for ascites. Most recently, she has been responsible for putting together a landmark international document defining renal failure in cirrhosis.

Grace WONG

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Director, Medical Data Analytics Centre (MDAC)
Deputy Director, Center for Liver Health
Assistant Dean (Learning Experience), Faculty of Medicine
Professor, Department of Medicine and Therapeutics

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 350 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. 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.

Marc WONG

Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong

Resident Specialist, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine and Therapeutics

Marc Wong graduated from the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong in 2009, receiving two scholarships and the Woo Kai Fun Prize. He completed his training in Gastroenterology and Hepatology in 2016 before joining the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Prince of Wale Hospital as a Resident Specialist in 2018. Dr Wong is currently in charge of the Motility services in Prince of Wales Hospital, with special focus on oesophageal motility disorders and gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GERD). His work includes collaboration with the Flinders University, Australia on pharyngeal manometry and is the first in Asia to have performed the FLIP topography using the EndoFLIP 2.0 system. Marc also has strong interest in advanced endoscopy including EUS and ERCP. He has been nominated for various international Train-the-Trainer Courses on EUS.

Vincent WONG

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Professor, Department of Medicine & Therapeutics
Head, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Faculty of Medicine

Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong

Honorary Consultant

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 450 articles in international medical journals, and his latest h index is 85. 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.

Khay-guan YEOH

National University of Singapore, Singapore

Professor in Medicine and Oncology

National University Health System, Singapore

Chief Executive

Professor Khay-guan Yeoh is Professor of Medicine at the National University of Singapore. His concurrent appointments include Senior Vice President (Health Affairs) of the National University of Singapore, as well as Chief Executive of the National University Health System. He practices as a Senior Consultant at the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, National University Hospital.

His research interest is in enhancing the early detection of gastric and colorectal cancers. He is the Lead Principal Investigator of the Singapore Gastric Cancer Consortium, a national flagship research group, which aims to improve the outcomes for gastric cancer by early detection, improving treatment and advancing the understanding of gastric carcinogenesis. He has published over 180 peer-reviewed papers in international journals and has an H-index of 55 with over 9,600 citations. He also serves as a reviewer for several journals and grant funding agencies.

Professor Yeoh is a Fellow of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London and Glasgow, and a member of the American Gastroenterology Association and American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. He has received several awards for his contributions to research, medical education and healthcare, including the Nishi-Takahashi Memorial Lecturer in 2011, the National Outstanding Clinician Scientist Award conferred by the Ministry of Health in 2013, the Public Administration Medal at the Singapore National Day Awards in 2016, and the 20th MSGH Oration by the Malaysian Society of Gastroenterology and Hepatology in 2020.

Hon-chi YIP

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Assistant Professor, Division of Upper Gastrointestinal and Metabolic Surgery, Department of Surgery

Hon-chi Yip is currently the Assistant Professor at the Division of Upper Gastrointestinal and Metabolic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Faculty of medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He graduated from medical school with honors at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2008, also as the recipient of the R.C. Li Gold Medallist in Surgery. He received general surgical training in Hong Kong, obtaining fellowship in the College of Surgeons of Hong Kong and Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 2015. Dr. Yip underwent further overseas training focusing on upper gastrointestinal surgery and endoscopy at Keio University, Tokyo and Osaka International Cancer Institute, Osaka, Japan. He has primary interests in upper gastrointestinal cancers, including endoscopic detection and diagnosis, endoscopic resection as well as minimally invasive surgical options for these cancers. He is leading a multi-centre international randomized controlled trial on endoscopic submucosal dissection of early gastric cancer. He is also involved in consensus statement on endoscopic management of early esophageal squamous cell carcinoma by the World Endoscopy Organization. He serves as a reviewer for numerous journals including Gastric Cancer, Endoscopy, Digestive Endoscopy, GIE, Annals of Surgical Oncology.

Since 2018, Dr. Yip joined as a Faculty of the Asia Novel Bio-imaging and Intervention Group (ANBIIG) and has since been actively participating in Education on endoscopy skills in the Asia-Pacific Region. He is currently leading in the e-Learning sub-committee of ANBIIG. He has also been invited as the committee member of training in Advanced Therapeutic Endoscopy in the Asia-Pacific Society of Digestive Endoscopy (APSDE). Dr. Yip has been invited to perform live demonstrations and lectures on specialized upper gastrointestinal endoscopic procedures at various local and international conferences and workshops. It is Dr. Yip’s career goal to promote early cancer diagnosis and treatment especially locally in Hong Kong, in order to improve quality of life in these patients.

Terry YIP

The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Medicine and Therapeutics

Terry Yip is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He graduated from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2014 with First Class Honor in B.Sc. in Statistics. He obtained his M.Phil. in Risk Management Science from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2016. In 2019, he obtained his PhD in Medical Sciences from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Dr. Yip’s main research interest is big data approaches on patients with chronic liver diseases. His research includes different subpopulations in chronic hepatitis B including patients with resolved chronic hepatitis B, and patients who received different antiviral treatment. He has over 150 publications in peer-reviewed journals including Journal of Hepatology, Gut, Gastroenterology, and Hepatology.

Ming-lung YU

Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan

Chair Professor, College of Medicine
Senior Vice President

Ming-lung Yu is a Chair Professor at the College of Medicine and Senior Vice President of Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan. Professor Yu, a board-certified internist and gastroenterologist, currently teaches at the Kaohsiung Medical University and Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital where he holds the leading role in the Hepatitis Research Center and an advisory role at the Center for Cancer Research. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the College of Biological Science and Technology, National Chiao Tung University, Hsin-Chu and the Institute of Biomedical Sciences, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, both in Taiwan. Professor Yu’s research interests in the epidemiology and natural history of viral hepatitis have led him to publish more than 350 journal and review articles. He also holds various editorial roles including handling editor of PLoS ONE, the World Journal of Gastroenterology and Clinical and Molecular Hepatology, and a member of the editorial board of Hepatology, the Journal of Infectious Diseases and Kaohsiung Journal of Medical Science.

Amany ZEKRY

St. George and Sutherland Clinical School, Australia

Clinical Academic

St. George Hospital, Australia

Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist

Amany Zekry is a Clinical Academic at St. George and Sutherland Clinical School. She is a Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist at St. George Hospital. Amany Zekry is part of the research team at the Microbiome Research Centre (MRC). She leads a research group investigating the role of the micro biome in the immunopathogenesis of liver disease and liver cancer in obesity.

Faming ZHANG

Nanjing Medical University, Sir Run Run Hospital, Nanjing, China

Professor, Division of Microbiotherapy

Faming Zhang graduated from the Fourth Military Medical University, China, and had visiting scholarship at the Johns Hopkins Hospital from 2011 to 2012. Professor Zhang leads his team focusing on therapeutic innovations in microbiome at affiliated hospitals of Nanjing Medical University, China. He and his team moved fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) to washed microbiota transplantation (WMT), supported China fecal microbiota bank (fmtBank) for providing national non-profit rescue WMT service, and sponsored China Microbiota Transplantation System for long-term safety evaluation on microbiota transplantation. The washed microbiota preparation contributes to the significantly decrease of FMT-related adverse events in patients with mucosal barrier injury. His innovations also involved with colonic transendoscopic enteral tubing (TET), the quick endoscopic mid-gut TET, cap assisted endoscopic sclerotherapy (CAES) for heamorrhoids and prolapse, and endoscopic anal LPRA positioning methods. Colonic TET is making repeat WMTs through whole colon be true in practice for serial indications. Professor Zhang is the initiator and co-chair of China Gut conference which is leading conference on microbiota related diseases with over 6000 attendees in 2021.

Weiping ZOU

University of Michigan School of Medicine, USA

Charles B. de Nancrede Professor
Professor of Pathology, Immunology, Biology, and Surgery, Departments of Pathology and Surgery
Co-Director, Cancer Hematopoiesis and Immunology Program
Co-Director, Immunologic Monitoring Core
Director, University of Michigan Surgical Oncology Research Training Program
Director, Center of Excellence for Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy, University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center

Weiping Zou, Charles B. de Nancrede Professor, serves as Director of the Michigan Center of Excellence for Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy. At the national level, he was the AACR Cancer Immunology (CIMM) Chairperson 2019-2020 and has served as the AAI Cancer Immunology Abstract Programming Chair for 4 years. He is an elected member of AAAS and AAP. He has delivered more than 300 invited lectures at different institutions and conferences and published more than 200 articles and book chapters, including 36 articles in Nature, Science, and Cell journal series. His laboratory is one of the most cited research teams in the field of immunology. Their work has been highlighted by many scientific news agencies. “Specific recruitment of regulatory T cells in ovarian carcinoma fosters immune privilege and predicts reduced survival”, an original work on human Tregs, has been cited more than 5,000 times since its publication. Dr. Zou has made seminal contributions to our understanding of immunosuppressive mechanisms in the tumor microenvironment. His early concept of combinatorial immunotherapeutic strategies has laid the foundation for current cancer immunotherapy and has provided rationales for novel combinations.

Fabien ZOULIM

Lyon University, Institut Universitaire de France, France

Professor of Medicine

Hospices Civils de Lyon, France

Medical Director, Hepatology Department

INSERM U1052, Cancer Research Center of Lyon, France

Scientific Director, Viral Hepatitis Research Laboratory

Fabien Zoulim obtained his M.D. in Gastroenterology and Hepatology in Lyon Medical School in 1991. He has also obtained a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology and was trained as a post-doctoral researcher at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. He is Professor of Medicine at Lyon I University since 1997. He is Head of the Hepatology Department at the Hospices Civils de Lyon, and Head of the Viral Hepatitis Research Laboratory of INSERM Unit 1052. Dr Zoulim is currently Associate Editor for Gut. He also served as a Governing Board member of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL). Dr Zoulim received the William Prusoff award of the International Society for Antiviral Research. He is currently coordinating the ANRS “HBV cure” Task Force in France and the “IP-cure-B” project within the EU H2020 workprogram. He co-founded and is currently the chair of the International Coalition to Eliminate HBV (ICE-HBV: http//:www.ice-hbv.org). He has published more than 500 articles (Web of Science H index 83).