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.

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, 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).

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.

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.

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.

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 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 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.

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 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 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 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 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.

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.

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.

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 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, 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”.

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 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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).