MAYOLYLIVE Faculty

Please find international experts who have participated in Mayoly educational events. Click on the photos to view the expert's biography.

Giovanni Barbara is Professor of InternalMedicine at the University of Bologna, Italy. He graduated summa cum laude in medicine at the University of Bologna. Hesubsequently qualified in internal medicine and then gastroenterology at thesame University. He was trained partly in London, UK and completed apost-doctoral research fellowship in neuro-immunology at McMaster University,Canada. Returning to Italy, he obtained a faculty position at the Department ofInternal Medicine and Gastroenterology at the University of Bologna. Currently,he is involved in clinical gastroenterology diagnostic and therapeuticendoscopy, teaching and research.

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Professor Barbara's main research interests relate to basic and clinicalaspects of functional gastrointestinal disorders and neurogastroenterology, andhe has authored more than 150 indexed peer-reviewed articles and reviews onthese topics.

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Professor Barbara has received national and international awards and he iscurrently member of the Board of Directors of the Rome Foundation, Past-Presidentof the European Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility (ESNM) andcurrently Chair of the Gut Microbiota and Health Section of ESNM.

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Robert Benamouzig is Professorof Gastroenterology and Chief of the Gastroenterologyand Digestive Oncology department at the Avicenne hospital(University Paris Nord La Sorbonne). This department includes generalgastroenterology, digestive oncology, oncogenetic, classical, interventional,and capsule endoscopy as well as functional disease units. There is also a clinicalresearch center dedicated to human nutrition and digestive studies (CRNH d’Ile de France).

Prof. Benamouzig is in charge of the DESof Gastroenterology and DigestiveOncology, teaches various Masters and coordinates the Oncogenetic Inter Univerisy Diploma. He hasconducted numerous studies on therole of the digestive tract onthe prevention of colorectal cancer, digestivephysiology and nutrition.  He has been principalinvestigator in over 80 clinical studies and has more than 240 original articles in peer review journals. He isnow coordinator of the French gut project (shotgun metagenomic microbiota studyin 100 000 French volunteers). He is or was associate editor for vaiousscientific journals (GCB, Presse Medicale, Revue du Praticien, TAGE).

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Prof. Benamouzig was Technical Advisor to the Director General of Health for the development ofcolon cancer screening and drug policy inFrance from 2000 to 2006. Heis a member of the Board for Colon Cancer Screening at the French NCI. He is a member of variousinstitutional action groups: Technical Group forGastroenterology and Nutrition at the ANSM,HAS and DGS. He is also a member of the Board of the National French Societyof Gastroenterology, the French Federation of Societies of Digestive Diseases andwas French delegate to UEG. He is now President of the CNP HGE, theumbrella organization of all French Hepato-Gastroenterologist as well as theunion for gastroenterology and digestive oncology in France.

Bruno Bonaz is Professor of Gastroenterology in the Grenoble Faculty of Medicine and Hospital in Grenoble, France. He is a member of the “Cerebral Stimulation & Systems Neuroscience” team lead by Olivier David at the Grenoble Institute of Neurosciences (GIN, INSERM U1216; https://neurosciences.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/), and was previously the team leader of the group Stress and Neurodigestive Interactions at the GIN.

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Prof. Bonaz has worked on brain-gut interactions for more than thirty years, both at the pre-clinical and clinical level, focusing on irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel diseases with a special interest in the role of stress and the autonomic nervous system in the pathogeny of such diseases. In particular, he is currently studying the anti-inflammatory (anti-TNF) properties of the vagus nerve (VN) through VN stimulation (VNS). His team has shown that VNS has an anti-inflammatory role in a model of colitis in rats and, in a translational approach and have recently published the first pilot study of VNS in patients with active Crohn’s disease. In Prof. Bonaz’s opinion, Bioelectronic Medicine, targeting the autonomic nervous system (e.g. the VN), opens new therapeutic avenues in the domain of gut inflammatory disorders.

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Prof. Bonaz is also interested in interoceptive awareness, based on the involvement of the VN in interoception, in functional digestive disorders and inflammatory bowel diseases. Additionally, he has researched the role of complementary medicines, such as hypnosis which he practices on patients and which is known to increase and re-balance vagal tone in a homeostatic way. Prof. Bonaz is also the principal investigator of a clinical trial using hypnosis in Crohn’s disease and was the past President of the International Society of Autonomic Neuroscience (ISAN).

PatriziaBurra is Full Professor of Gastroenterology, Head of the MultivisceralTransplant Unit, Department of Surgery, Oncology and Gastroenterology at Padua UniversityHospital, Italy.

She is clinically and scientificallyinvolved in the field of liver transplantation, mainly with regard to HBVprophylaxis after transplantation, liver transplantation for NAFLD and NASH,early liver transplantation for acute alcoholic hepatitis. In addition, she isinvolved in the clinical management of patients with HCC, primary sclerosingcholangitis, and cholangiocarcinoma.

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Currentlyshe is the UEG Public Affairs Committee Chair and General Secretary of theItalian Society of Gastroenterology (SIGE). In2021 she received the EASLrecognition award2021 and the Fellow of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases(FAASLD). She is Co-chair of The Lancet-EASLCommission on liver diseases in Europe and Deputy Editor of Journal of Hepatology.She has authored over 400 articles in internationalpeer-reviewed journals (H-index 63).

Marine Camus (MD, PhD) is a hepato-gastroenterologistspecialized in endoscopy. After studying medicine in Paris and obtaining amaster's degree in surgical sciences, she completed a post-doctoral fellowshipat UCLA (University of California Los Angeles) under the supervision of Prof.Dennis Jensen on the subject of digestive bleeding. She is now a full professorat Sorbonne University in Paris and joined the endoscopy center at Hôpital StAntoine in Paris in November 2017. She is heavily involved in digestiveendoscopy training for gastroenterology fellows in Paris and in France.

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Prof. Camus’ clinical research focuses on digestiveendoscopy and correlates with the field in which she was trained, as well aswith her current clinical practice of interventional endoscopy (hemostasis,EUS, ERCP, ESD). She heads the Parisian On-call Endoscopic Team (POET), whichperforms emergency endoscopies in Paris and its suburbs at night and weekends. 

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Her research activity focuses on gastrointestinal bleedingand the development of new endoscopic diagnostic and therapeutic tools forbiliary tract pathologies, following a PhD devoted to the study of physical andpharmacological treatments of biliary tract and pancreatic tumors, such as theeffect of therapeutic ultrasound cavitation, radiofrequency ablation oroxidative stress compounds.

Dr Carbone is Senior Lecture at the University of Milano-Bicocca and Honorary Consultant Hepatologist at the European Reference Network-Liver Centre San Gerardo University Hospital, Monza (Italy) where he is the clinical lead of the cholestatic liver disease programme. He received his medical degree in Rome, Italy and trained in Hepatology in Birmingham and Cambridge, UK.

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His research interests mainly relate to the study of disease mechanisms in cholestatic liver diseases. He runs a research programme in primary biliary cholangitis and primary sclerosing cholangitis that encompasses joint modelling of molecular, biochemical and radiological data, and their conversion into meaningful outputs that can improve mechanistic understanding, health care decisions, and the design of innovative clinical trials.

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Dr. Carbone is a board member of the PBC Foundation and Council member of the Global Liver Institute. He is in the panel of the national guidelines for PBC and PSC and sits on the special interest group of the Italian Association of the Study of the Liver (AISF) for application of artificial intelligence in liver disease.

Emmanuel CORON is professor of gastroenterology at the CentreHospitalier Universitaire de Nantes, France. He is head of the Education committee of the French Society ofDigestive Endoscopy (SFED), and also past committee member of the FrenchNational Society of Gastroenterology (SNFGE), the Francophone Federation of Digestive Cancerology (FFCD) and the European Society of Digestive Endoscopy(ESGE).

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Through international stays (Boston,Geneva) and collaborations, he has developed an expertise in novel diagnostic and interventional endoscopic techniques, which are applied to the fields of both translational research using animal models and clinical studies performed in humans. He is also involved in training fellows and more advanced endoscopists in interventional endoscopic techniques (endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, endoscopic ultrasound, submucosal dissections, stenting…) and novel imaging techniques.

Maura Corsetti leads the GI Motility Service and is the referral consultant for functional disorders of upper and lower GI tract at the Nottingham Digestive Diseases Centre. She obtained her Specialization (2000) and PhD (2004) in Italy, where she worked for eight years as the referral consultant for functional bowel disorders and lead of the Motility Unit of one of the most important university hospitals in Milan, the San Raffaele University Hospital. She then moved to Belgium, where she spent part of her PhD working in the lab of Prof Jan Tack as Senior Research Supervisor (2012-2016). Her professional carrier has been dedicated to the study of the role of gut motility to the pathophysiology of symptoms of functional disorder. She is one of the Editors of the journal Neurogastroenterology and Motility and she leads the working group on food and drug interaction in the COST Action CA16205 (European Network on Understanding Gastrointestinal Absorption-related Processes).

Silvio Danese is a Gastroenterologist and Professor of Gastroenterology at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University and IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy, since October 2021, and Director of Gastroenterology and Gastrointestinal Endoscopy Unit.  He was previously Head of the IBD Centre and ImmunoCentre at IRCCS Humanitas, Rozzano, Milan, Italy, and Professor of Gastroenterology at Humanitas University.  Prof. Danese trained in Gastroenterology at Policlinico Gemelli, Rome graduating with a PhD, and worked in Dr. Claudio Fiocchi’s laboratory at the Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA from 2001 to 2004.

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His main research area of interest is the investigation of the fundamental mechanisms underlying IBD pathogenesis, while his daily clinical activity relates to IBD service. He is actively involved in many international clinical trials in IBD and has published more than 700 papers in several journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, the Lancet, Gastroenterology, Gut, and the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

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Prof. Danese is a member of many organizations in the IBD field, including the European Crohn´s and Colitis Organization (ECCO), where he is past President (2018 – 2020), and United European Gastroenterology, where he is Research Chair Elect.

Evelien Dekker is professor of GastrointestinalOncology at the University of Amsterdam’s Faculty of Medicine (UvA) and theAmsterdam University Medical Centers (AUMC). She heads the AUMC expert clinicfor familial and hereditary polyposis and CRC and is also medical director ofthe Bergman IZA expertise center for endoscopy. She obtained her PhD at the UvAand completed her medical training as internist (2002) and gastroenterologist(2005) at the AUMC and OLVG hospital. She combines her clinical work withtranslational and clinical research, chairing the CRC research group at theAUMC Gastroenterology department since 2005. This group studies CRC populationscreening methods, diagnostics and surveillance, familial and hereditarypolyposis and cancer syndromes, colonoscopy quality and advanced techniques,and colorectal polyp and early CRC treatment. Evelien is a member of severalnational and international working groups and guideline committees on a.o. CRCsurveillance guidelines, advanced endoscopic imaging guidelines, endoscopisttraining curricula, and management of hereditary CRC syndromes guidelines.Evelien has been one of the frontrunners in establishing the Dutch national CRCscreening program and is still involved in evaluation and quality assurance ofthe program. Currently, she is global chair of the CRC screening committee ofthe World Endoscopy Organisation.

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Jacques DEVIERE is the chairman of the Medical-Surgical Department of Gastroenterology, Hepato-pancreatology and Digestive Oncology at Erasme University Hospital and Ordinary Professor of Medicine and Director of the Laboratory of Experimental Gastroenterology at the University Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.

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He is past president of the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and co-founded of the Brussels Medical Devices Center (BMDC) and 2 start-up companies from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Endotools Therapeutics and Lys Medical).

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He has authored or co-authored more than 560 pubmed referenced publications, 42 international patents,  and has 40 000 Google Scholar citations and an H Index of 107 (Google Scholar).

Prof. Alanna Ebigbo is Head of the Department of Advanced and Interventional Endoscopy at the Universitätsklinikum Augsburg, Germany and Consultant Gastroenterologist and ID Specialist, at the University Hospital Augsburg Germany.

His research interests revolve around artificial intelligence in diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy, endoscopic resection techniques, ESD and EMR, third-space endoscopy, and endoscopic cascade Guidelines for resource-poor regions (ESGE/WEO and WGO Joint ResearchProject).

Prof. Ebigbo is very active with the ESGE and is involved in several social and philanthropic projects including his role as Chairman of the NGO, Endoscopy Futures Nigeria to promote and improve endoscopic practice in Nigeria.

Prof. Ebigbo has also been a reviewer for numerous journals including the Lancet, Gut, Gastroenterology, Endoscopy, the Journal of Gastroenterology, BMJ Open Gastroenterology, and DigestiveDiseases to name a few.

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Pauline Jouët is a Gastroenterologist in the department of Gastroenterology of the University Hospital of Bobigny (AP-HP, Avicenne Hospital, France). She worked initially in the USA (Milwaukee, Wisconsin), obtained her Ph.D. in France, and is now a member of INSERM unit U-987 of research entitled “Physiopathology and clinical pharmacology of pain” (Boulogne-Billancourt, France). She is an associate professor at the College of Medicine of Paris Hospitals, member of the French group on therapeutic study for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (GETAID), member of the Scientific board of the French National Society of Gastroenterology (SNFGE). She was elected as French representative to the committee of the United European Gastroenterology (2017-2020).

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Her main research interest focuses on pathologies related to functional digestive disorders. , Her clinical and research activities also cover the management of liver diseases, inflammatory bowel diseases, as well as digestive oncology. She is currently president of the French Group of Neurogastroenterology (GNFG) and member of the scientific board of the French association of patients with irritable bowel syndrome (www.apssii.org).

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Professor Leroy currently serves as the head of the Hepatology department at Henri Mondor University Hospital in Paris (France). His interests include clinical and translational research in chronic liver diseases, with a specific focus on fibrosis and liver immune response in viral hepatitis and rare liver diseases.

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He is expert at the Biomedecine Agency (ABM), and the French Agency for AIDS and viral hepatitis (ANRS) and is the Secretary of the Group for the Study of Molecular Viral Hepatitis (GEMHEP) in France.

Miranda Lomer is a Senior Consultant Dietitian in Gastroenterology at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals, London and a Professor of Dietetics in Gastroenterology at King’s College London. Her research interests include the nutritional management of function bowel disorders (gastro-oesophageal reflux disease and irritable bowel syndrome) and inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and orofacial granulomatosis) She has research skills in dietary assessment and nutritional management of these conditions and has expertise in conducting national audits, developing national guidelines and conducting multi-centre clinical trials. She has been chair of the Gastroenterology Specialist Group of the British Dietetic Association (BDA) and represented the BDA on the National IBD Standards Group Steering Committee. She was a committee member of the Dietitians of European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO) Working Group and is Editor of a book entitled Advanced Nutrition and Dietetics in Gastroenterology. She gave the BDA Elsie Widdowson Lecture in 2014 as recognition of her international impact in dietetics. In 2016 she was awarded an MBE for services to dietetics and gastroenterology.

Loris Riccardo Lopetuso is a Gastroenterologist and Endoscopist at the Digestive Disease Center - CEMAD Fondazione Policlinico Gemelli IRCCS Roma, Italy. He is also Associate Professor at University “G. D’Annunzio” of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy. 

His main areas of interest are inflammatory boweldiseases (IBD) and disorders of gut -brain interaction (DGBI), both in the clinical and research settings. During the last ten years he conducted several research projects focused on the interaction between gut microbiota alterations and the immune system, and on the potential beneficial effects of gut microbiota therapeutic modulation. Prof. Lopetuso’s projects have generated exciting results that he has been honoured to publish in high impact peer-reviewed journals and present at the most important national and international conferences.  He has also obtained prestigious awards.

Giovanni Marasco is Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine at the Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences of the University of Bologna and Consultant at the Internal Medicine and Digestive Pathophysiology Unit of the IRCC Sant’Orsola Malpighi University Hospital of Bologna in Italy. He is also part of the Young Member Committee of the Italian Society of Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy and the Treasurer of the Italian Society of Young Gastroenterologist and Endoscopists.

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Prof. Marasco received his medical degree in 2014 from the University of Bologna, were he also started his research career in 2013 focusing on gut microbiota of celiac and diverticular disease patients. He continued his research career with a PhD program in Gastroenterology and Hepatology and completed his specialist training in Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endoscopy in 2019. Currently, Prof. Marasco’s research is focused on the study of gut microbiota and its modulation in gastrointestinal and internal medicine disease, and disorders of gut-brain interactions.

Since 2013, Iris Nagtegaal has held the position of Professor of Gastrointestinal Pathology. She works as a gastrointestinal pathologist at Radboud University Medical Center, contributing her expertise to the national bowel cancer screening program.

After her PhD in 2002 (Leiden University, Pathology of rectal carcinoma, cum laude), she trained in pathology at the Radboud university medical centre, Rijnstate Hospital, CWZ and Leeds University Hospital (Leeds, UK). As a fellow of the Dutch Cancer Society she trained her scientific skills at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, USA) and Queen Mary's University of London(UK), after which she returned to the Radboud university medical centre.

Professor Nagtegaal has received several awards including the Rising Star Award of the United European Gastroenterology Federations in 2012, Fellowship of the Dutch Cancer Society in 2006 and AstraZeneca Research Award for the best gastrointestinal PhD thesis in the Netherlands in 2003.

Professor Nagtegaal's main research interest focuses on personalized pathology of colorectal cancer: improving patients prognosis by providing an evidence-based diagnosis and basis for treatment. She studies the processes of tumor development, local recurrence, metastases and tumor regression, using acombination of traditional and molecular pathology, combined with clinical data to detect novel  prognostic and predictive factors. She has co-authored over 410 scientific articles.

Frederik Nevens is Professor of Medicine at the KU Leuven, Belgium. He is senior Hepatologist and the Medical Director of the Liver Transplant program at the University Hospitals Leuven (Belgium). As a specialist in Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology and Hepatology, he earned his medical degree from the KU Leuven (summa cum laude) as well as his PhD (Pathophysiology of Portal Hypertension). He performed an additional 1-year training at the liver unit of the University of Barcelona. For 15 years he was Senior Clinical Researcher granted by the ‘Fund of Scientific Research Flanders’ (Belgium) and he was chairmen of the division of Hepatology and of the lab of Hepatology.

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He co-founded the Belgian Association of the Study of the Liver (BASL), was secretary of the Flemish society of Gastroenterology (VVGE), has served as a European Association of the Liver (EASL) board member and was president of the Belgian Liver and Intestinal Transplantation Committee (BLIC). He is currently the coordinator of the courses of Digestive Diseases at the University of Leuven (KUL).

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Prof. Nevens current research interests include complications of cirrhosis and ACLF, liver transplantation, chronic hepatitis B and C viruses, PBC/PSC/AIH and polycystic liver disease and he runs the clinical trial unit of the division of Hepatology (10-15 clinical trials /year).

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He is author/co-author of > 750 publications (web of science) (including New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Nature Medicine, BMJ, Gastroenterology, Gut, Hepatology, Journal of Hepatology and American Journal of Transplantation) with a sum of times cited of 20 000 and a h-index of > 60. He was the presenter of >500 lectures at national and international scientific meetings (including EASL, AASLD, Best of EASL speaker and Gastro Update Europe).

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Colm O'Morain is Professor Emeritus of ClinicalMedicine at Trinity College Dublin and was appointed National Clinical lead in Gastroenterology and Hepatology in 2019 by the Health Service Executive and Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. He has held many positions of authority in National, European and World Organisations most notably President of the Irish Society of Gastroenterology, President of the European National Societies of Gastroenterology, President of the United European Gastroenterology and the Biomedical Alliance for Research in Europe.

His research interests focus on in Helicobacter pylori, inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer screening.  He is a co-author of the European Guidelines for Colorectal Cancer Screening and an advisor to the National Cancer Screening Service in Ireland.

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Prof. O’Morain was awarded Life Time Achievement awards from the Irish Society of Gastroenterology in 2012 and the United European Gastroenterology in 2018.  He has published over 500 peer reviewed articles and co-authored eight books and his H factor is 88. He is Chief Field Editor of Frontiers in Gastroenterology.

Maria Pellisé is associate professor at the University of Barcelona where she is the co-director of the postgraduate master’s in advanced skills of advanced endoscopy and director of several Grade and Master thesis projects. She is also a consultant gastroenterologist at the Gastroenterology Department at the Hospital Clinic ofBarcelona where she is clinical coordinator of the Population Screening Programme, co-coordinator of the colorectal cancer MDT and runs a high-risk colorectal cancer clinic.  Since 2018 she is co-director of the Master of Advanced Endoscopy from the Spanish Society of DigestiveEndoscopy (SEED).

Prof. Pellisé is an R3A accredited researcher and a national and international leader in advanced imaging and therapeutic endoscopy for colorectal high-risk patients.  She was the founder of the EndoCAR research group and is leader of the EpiT1 consortium. She has participated as an author in Guidelines on lower GI from ESGE and SEED and is member of the ESGE guideline and QIC working groups. She was an editor of Endoscopy Journal from 2015-2021and has co-authored more than 225 scientific publications in international journals with more than 6803 citations and a h-index48 (SCOPUS).

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Since 2016 she has been a Board member of the EuropeanSociety of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) and Chair of the Equity andDiversity WG since 2021. She is also president of the Spanish Association ofGastroenterology (AEG) and is a part of the Scientific Committee of ESGEdays.

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Dr. Thierry Ponchon is a hepato-gastroenterologist who graduated from the University of Medicine in Lyon, France. He began his residency (1987) at the CHU Edouard Herriot, where he continued his career until the mid-1990s performing various functions. There he held the positions of a doctor, gastroenterologist, professor of medicine, and Head of the Gastroenterology Unit. Since 2023, he has been working at the Leon Berard Cancer Center (Lyon).

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Dr. Ponchon has been President of the European Society of Digestive Endoscopy (ESGE) and the French Society of Digestive Endoscopy (SFED), and was Chairman of the public affairs committee of the United European Gastroenterology (UEG).

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He developed experimental research activities in INSERM U1012 (Medical applications of ultrasounds and non-ionizing radiations), and clinical research activities as head of the research committees of the SFED and ESGE.

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He was in charge of the French diploma on interventional endoscopy.

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He was co-editor-in-chief of the journal Endoscopy and he is now editor-in-chief of the journal Endoscopy International Open. He is the president of the regional center (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes) for cancer screening.

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Vinciane Rebours, MD, PhD, is Professor, Head of theDepartment of Pancreatology and Digestive Oncology, Beaujon Hospital, Clichy,exclusively specialising in the management of pancreatic diseases (inflammatoryand cancerous) and digestive neuroendocrine tumours. She studied at the Paris DiderotUniversity for her medical degree and went on to complete her PhDin pancreatic inflammation and oncogenesis. Her post-graduate posts haveincluded Senior Lecturer and Professor at the Pancreatology Unit, BeaujonHospital and Université Paris-Cité. Professor Rebours was electedpresident of the European Pancreatic Club for 2020 and is the past President ofthe French National Association of Gastroenterology. In 2017 she developed andcontinues to lead the national network for pancreatic rare diseases in France.

Prof. Edoardo Vincenzo Savarino received his Medical and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Genoa and completed his residency training in internal medicine and gastroenterology at the Department of Internal Medicine, Azienda Ospedaliera-Universitaria San Martino of Genoa, Italy. He is currently Associate Professor of Gastroenterology at the University of Padua in Italy.

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Prof. Savarino is principally interested in neurogastroenterology and immune-mediated diseases, including inflammatory bowel diseases and eosinophilic disorders of the gastro-intestinal tract. He has published extensively (h-index 53, published papers n=453) on gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), esophageal motility disorders, Barrett’s Esophagus, functional GI disorders (functional dyspepsia, irritable bowel syndrome), eosinophilic esophagitis, and inflammatory bowel diseases.

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He received various prizes for his work from UEG Federation, OESO foundation, ISDE, and Società Italiana di Gastroenterologia ed Endoscopia. He is also a reviewer for various journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, the American Journal Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Gastroenterology, Gut, Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the American Journal of Gastroenterology, and Neurogastroenterology and Motility(NMO).

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He co-founded the Belgian Association of the Study of the Liver (BASL), was secretary of the Flemish society of Gastroenterology (VVGE), has served as a European Association of the Liver (EASL) board member and was president of the Belgian Liver and Intestinal Transplantation Committee (BLIC). He is currently the coordinator of the courses of Digestive Diseases at the University of Leuven (KUL).

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Prof. Nevens current research interests include complications of cirrhosis and ACLF, liver transplantation, chronic hepatitis B and C viruses, PBC/PSC/AIH and polycystic liver disease and he runs the clinical trial unit of the division of Hepatology (10-15 clinical trials /year).

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He is author/co-author of > 750 publications (web of science) (including New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Nature Medicine, BMJ, Gastroenterology, Gut, Hepatology, Journal of Hepatology and American Journal of Transplantation) with a sum of times cited of 20 000 and a h-index of > 60. He was the presenter of >500 lectures at national and international scientific meetings (including EASL, AASLD, Best of EASL speaker and Gastro Update Europe).

Carmelo Scarpignato graduated in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Modena in Italy. He is currently Professor of Medicine & Clinical Pharmacology at the Faculty of Health Sciences, LUdeS Lugano Campus, Switzerland & United Campus of Malta, Msida, Malta. He is also Honorary Clinical Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Consultant Clinical Pharmacologist & Gastroenterologist.

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Professor Scarpignato’s main research interests focus on digestive clinical pharmacology, gastrointestinal motility, and upper GI pathophysiology as well pain medicine. He has authored more than 500 publications (of which 350 are full papers or book chapters) on these topics and has also edited 28 books on clinical evaluation of GI function and on Pharmacology & Therapeutics of Digestive Diseases. He is or has been on the editorial boards of numerous publications including Pharmacology, Gut, Digestion, Digestive Diseases,  World Journal of Gastroenterology, and has been co-Editor of two prestigious book series, Frontiers of Gastrointestinal Research and Progress in Basic and Clinical Pharmacology.

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Professor Scarpignato is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London), the American College of Physicians, the American College of Clinical Pharmacology, the American College of Gastroenterology and of the American Gastroenterological Association.

Prof. Agnès Senéjoux trained in medico-surgical proctology in Paris at the Léopold Bellan Hospital where she worked for more than 10 years. As a gastroenterologist since 1994, she also worked in the teams of Marc Lemann and Yoram Bouhnik focusing on IBD, especially anoperineal lesions, and participated in the GETAID studies.

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Since 2012 she has been practicing at the Centre Hospitalier Privé Rennes Saint Grégoire.  Her current areas of expertise include surgical treatments of anal suppurations, chronic inflammatory bowel disease and hemorrhoids. She also teaches and supervises on student study programs.

Magnus Simrén is Professor of Gastroenterology, University of Gothenburg, and Senior Consultant,Department of Internal Medicine, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg,Sweden. He is also Adjunct Professor ofMedicine, University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.

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Doctor Simrén’s main research areas are the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of disorders of gut-brain interaction (DGBI),as well as the treatment of these. He has published more than 390 original articles and written several book chapters on GI motility diseases and DGBI and is currently supervisor for thirteen PhD students and eight post-docs.

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Doctor Simrén has served as council member for several international organizations, including UEG and the Rome Foundation. Professor Simrén has also been working as Deputy Editor and Associate Editor of Gut, and as the Clinical Editor of Neurogastroenterology and Motility. Currently,Professor Simrén is Associate Editor of Gastroenterology.

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Prof. Laurent SIPROUDHIS specializes in diseases of the colon, rectum and anus in their various dimensions (care, research and education) at Rennes University Hospital (France). His areas of expertise include treatments of abscesses and fistulas, chronic inflammatory bowel disease, anorectal functional disorders and anal precancerous conditions. He is personally involved in structuring national educational programmes (university coordination) and is involved in clinical research in proctology (GREP).

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Prof. SIPROUDHIS is a member of the Société Nationale Française de Colo Proctologie (SNFCP).

Cristiano Spada is professor of gastroenterology at the Catholic University, Rome, and Director of the Digestive Endoscopy Unit at the Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli – IRCCS (Rome).  

Professor Spada specializes in diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy with a specific interest in small bowel endoscopy and colonoscopy. He is part of the Medical Staff of the European Endoscopy Training Centre (EETC)at the Catholic University (Gemelli Hospital, Rome), a highly technological, state of the art scientific pole dedicated to training gastroenterologists, endoscopists and surgeons from all over the world. Professor Spada has a strong global relationship with different institutions and key opinion leaders worldwide, with ongoing faculty exchanges, conferencing, and training courses.

He is active in several research and educational activities in the field of digestive endoscopy and gastroenterology and author of full papers published in Medline and abstracts published in national and international conferences.

Professor Jan Tack is currently Head of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology in the Leuven University Hospital, a Professor in Internal Medicine at the University of Leuven, and a founding researcher of TARGID (the Translational Research Center for Gastrointestinal Disorders) at the University of Leuven. He graduated summa cum laude in 1987 from the University of Leuven and specialized in internal medicine and gastroenterology at the same institution. A research fellow at the Department of Physiology at the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA, from 1989 to 1990, he has been conducting research at Leuven University since 1990. Professor Tack’s scientific interest focuses on neurogastroenterology and motility, and includes diverse topics such as the pathophysiology and management of gastrointestinal functional and motor disorders (including functional dyspepsia, gastroparesis, gastroesophageal reflux disease, globus, dysphagia, dumping syndrome, chronic constipation, IBS and opioid-induced bowel dysfunction), the physiology and pharmacology of the enteric nervous system, GI hormones and the control of satiation and food intake.

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Professor Tack was the promotor of more than 45 Ph.D. fellows. He currently supervises a research group which comprises 10 Ph.D. fellows, 5 postdocs and 5 technical/support staff. He has published more than 750 articles and 45 book chapters on various aspects of scientific and clinical gastroenterology, generating an h-index of 87.

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Professor Tack won several awards for Basic and Clinical Research in GI Science. Professor Tack is President of the Rome Foundation, Past-President of the European Society of Esophagology, and Past-President of the International Society for Diseases of the Esophagus. He has served as founding Editor-in-chief of the United European Gastroenterology Journal, and as co-editor for Neurogastroenterology and Motility, Gastroenterology, Gut and Digestion. He serves or has served as a member of the editorial board of Gastroenterology, American Journal ofGastroenterology, Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Journal of Internal Medicine, Bailliere’s Best Practice and Research in Clinical Gastroenterology, Annals of Gastroenterology and Journal of Gastroenterology.

Prof. Geoffroy Vanbiervliet is Gastroenterologist and Head of the Digestive Endoscopy Department at Hôpital de L'Archet 2 in Nice, France. He is a national and international specialist in digestive endoscopy and EUS, both diagnostic and therapeutic. He is currently general secretary of the French endoscopic digestive Society (SFED), member of the board of the scientific committee of ESGE-days and teaches in this field at the Faculties of Medicine in Nice, Marseille, Aix-en-Provence, Paris and Lyon.

Umberto Volta is a Professor at the Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna, Sant’Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, Italy with a specialty in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Diseases. His research interest focus on immunology and clinical aspects of coeliac disease and other gluten-related disorders (non-coeliac gluten sensitivity, dermatitis herpetiformis, gluten ataxia), acute and chronic liver diseases, immunological abnormalities in connective tissue diseases, and organ and non-organ specific autoimmunity in type 1 diabetes mellitus.

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Prof. Volta has published 600 publications of which 204 are in peer-review journals. He is also a Member of the Scientific Board of the Italian Association for Coeliac Disease (since 2006), the Board of the European Society for the Study of Coeliac Disease (ESSCD since 2015 and the Italian Society of Gastroenterology (SIGE since 1980).