AGENDA

Giovanni Gasbarini was President of the Italian Society of Alcology and Member of

the Board of Directors of the Italian Society of Gastroenterology, of the Italian

Society of Internal Medicine, from which he was awarded the title of Member of

Honor. He is the founder and President of the “Club del Tenue” and of the

“FONCRE” (Operative Cancer Rectus-Colon), and currently the corporate framework

for digestive diseases (Club del Tenue, FONCRE, Hp Italian Section, Intestinal

Motility). He was Vice-President of the International Association of Surgeons &

Gastroenterologists.

He was President and is now a Member of the European Helicobacter Study Group

(of which the Italian section is also the President); he was President of EAGEN

(European Associate Gastroenterol, Nutrition) and is currently past-President of

EAGEN. He is a member of over 15 Italian and International Scientific Societies

(Italian Society of Internal Medicine - Italian Geriatrics Society - Italian

Gastroenterology Society - Italian Electronic Microscopy Society - Italian Society of

Alcology - European Society Liver Study - French Society of Gastroenterology -

David Van Thiel obtained his MD from the University of California at Los Angeles

and completed his Internal Medicine residencies at Cornell University Hospitals and

Boston University. He completed a Gastrointestinal/Hepatology fellowship at Boston

University and the University of Pittsburgh. At the latter institution, he progressed

from an Instructor of Medicine to Professor of Medicine and Director of the

Gastroenterology Hepatology Program and served as the medical Director of Liver

transplantation. He has published more than 100 peer reviewed papers in a variety of

journals and is on the Editorial Board of several journals as well as serves as a

reviewer.

Bashar M. Attar is the Professor of Medicine and Surgery at Rush University Medical

Center in Chicago, Illinois. He is also the System-wide Chairman of

Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Cook County Health and Hospitals System. Dr.

Attar has special interest Acute and Chronic pancreatitis as well as potential

mechanisms contributing to Pancreatic Cancer. He has also avid interest in viral

hepatitis, metabolic and cholestatic liver disorders including bile transport.

Dr. Attar is the 2010 recipient of the President Diversity Award by the ASGE. He is

also the 2015 recipient of the prestigious National “Parker J. Palmer Courage to Teach

Award” by the ACGME which was granted in recognition of extraordinary

accomplishment in Graduate Medical Education. He has been recently elected (2017)

to the Humanism Honor Society in recognition of exemplary service, integrity,

clinical excellence and compassion.

Qingjie Li worked as a faculty member in the Central South University from 1991 to

2000 and as a postdoctoral fellow at the Linus Pauling Institute, Oregon State

University, from 2000 to 2006. In 2007, he joined the University of Texas Medical

Branch at Galveston as an Assistant Professor. He was promoted to Associate

Professor in 2018. His research is funded by NIH and American Heart Association.

He received many awards and has published more than 40 peer-reviewed research

articles, a book chapter, and several gene sequences in GenBank. He has served as a

reviewer for NIH, American Gastroenterological Association, and numerous journals,

including Gastroenterology, the most prominent journal in the field of gastrointestinal

disease. Research interest: Qingjie Li research interests lie in pathogenesis,

molecular mechanisms, and chemoprevention of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD)

and its comorbidities, including colitis-associated cancer and IBD-associated

cardiovascular disorders.

Fong-Fong Chu has her expertise in gastrointestinal diseases especially in

inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Her team has established a mouse model of IBD

which is very-early onset. These mice are deficient in two isoenzymes which reduce

hydrogen peroxide named GPx1/2-double knockout (DKO). This model is a better

model than chemical-induced colitis models because it is not injury based and mimic

closely to human IBD. She has built this model through 20 years of research and has

identified new targets for IBD therapy. She joined Beckman Research Institute of the

City of Hope, Duarte CA USA since 1987 and Department of Gastroenterology &

Hepatology and the First Affiliated Hospital and College of Clinical Medicine of

Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, Henan, China since 2016

Reactive oxygen species generated by NADPH oxidase-1 and

Dual oxidase-2 contribute to inflammatory bowel disease

Susan Joyce graduated with a B.Sc from NUI Maynooth in Biology and Mathematics

and a research PhD in host-miocrobe interactions. She was awarded a Marie Curie

Fellowship to examine cis and trans acting factors affecting mRNA synthesis and

microbial gene expression at the Ecole Normal Superieure, Paris which included a

stint at the Max Planck Institute, Berlin. Before returning to UCC, She was a

postdoctoral scientist at Trinity College Dublin and the Univerity of Bath, UK. Her

main interest is in microbial genetic and biochemical systems that alter eukaryotic

host signaling. Susan is currently a Lecturer in the School of Biochemistry and Cell

Biology and a funded Investigator in the APC Microbiome Institute as part of the

Spoke 4 Host- Microbe Dialogue.

Biljana Vuletic is Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Faculty of Medical Sciences

University of Kragujevac and Chief of the Department of Gastroenterology of

Pediatric clinic and a full ESPGHAN member. She received her medical degree from

the Medical Faculty University of Belgrade. She started her residency in pediatrics at

the University Children s Hospital University of Belgrade. There she also trained in

Pediatric endoscopy and ultrasonography. She was finished two hands-on Courses in

UK, Sheffield Children’s Hospital. she has been accepted by OMI foundation,

Austria, for Observer ship program at the Medical University of Graz, Universities

Kinderklinik LKH Graz two times. Her mainly clinical interests include chronic

intestinal failure, coeliac disease and clinical nutrition. She has summary 168

publications including authored or co-authored papers in peer-reviewed journals and

also chapters in national Monographs and Textbooks published in Serbia.

A.S.M.A. Raihan has been working in the department of Gastroenterology,

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. His research

interest is focused in Irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, peptic

ulcer disease and Helicobacter pylori infection. His important works are profile of

ulcerative colitis in Bangladesh, presented in APDW, 2006, profile of patients of

Crohn's disease in Bangladesh, Symptomatic overlap in patients with diarrhoea

predominant irritable bowel syndrome and microscopic colitis in Bangladeshi

population and histopathological alteration in post infectious irritable bowel

syndrome. He developed a clinical scoring system to differentiate difficult to diagnose

cases of intestinal tuberculosis and Crohn’s disease and presented his work in Asia

Pacific Digestive Week, Kobe, Japan in 2016. He has got more than 50 publications

and he supervised more than 50 theses.

Saad Rashid Al Kaabi is a Professor and consultant in the department of

Gastroenterology and Hepatology. He is working as a consultant in Hamad Hospital,

Doha, Qatar for about 7 years. He has published more than 100 peer reviewed papers

in a variety of journals and is on the Editorial Board of several journals as well as

serves as a reviewer. He is guiding many researchers on their works.

Bülent Çakal completed his PhD from istanbul University, Turkey. He worked Post-

doctoral Research Fellow about molecular virology of Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) at

Department of Microbiology and Immunology College of Medicine University of

Illinois at Chicago / U.S.A. He has three publications over 20 times, and his

publication H-index is 6.98 and he has worked depermant of medical microbiology

and he has two research projects about HBV

Mohammad Khalid Parvez obtained his PhD (Virology) from International Center for

Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi, India. He has worked as

Welcome-Trust postdoctoral fellow at Virology Group, ICGEB, India as wells at

Hepatitis Viruses Section, NIAID, National Institute of Allergy & Infectious

Diseases, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA. He further worked as a Research Associate at

Institute of Human Virology, Baltimore, MD, USA before accepting a faculty

position at King Saud University College of Pharmacy, Riyadh, KSA. He is actively

involved in hepatitis virology and liver disease research for the past 16 years.

Currently, he has two research grants to his credit, including few collaborative

projects on synthesis and screening of anti-cancer/microbial/viral molecules. He has

published over 50 papers, including couples of editorials and reviews in

internationally reputed journals. Dr. Parvez is a member of many international

scientific organizations, and serving on editorial/reviewers board of several peer-

reviewed journals

Lem Edith Abongwa a Medical Microbiologist is an assistant lecturer of the

University of Bamenda and a PhD student in Kenyatta University.. My research

interest is on HIV and Hepatitis B virus. I am interested in the identification and

assessment of risk factors that expose communities to these infections and possible

solutions to prevent and control them as well as parasite strain diversity and severity

to infectious infection. Prior to medical research she was the head, a public health

non-governmental organization assessing the implementation of option B+ in two

regions of Cameroon sponsored by a PEPFAR HIV/AIDS project in Cameroon

Mina Y George is an assistant lecturer at the department of Pharmacology and

Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, ASU since August 2016. He has a good experience

concerning mechanistic studies of different animal models including

gastroenterology, liver fibrosis and neuropsychiatric disorders. In addition, he studied

several signaling pathways related to the pathogenesis of such disorders and

illustrated the effect of new drug targets to treat or prevent those diseases.

Furthermore, he has a good knowledge about molecular and behavioral pharmacology

together with neuropharmacology

Jaya Maheshwari is a prominent dignified surgeon and has pursued minimal access

surgery moving further in her career. During her academic journey she had been

awarded a couple of fellowships in laparoscopy from the top institutes. Ongoing with

her pursuit for academic excellence she specialized and got certified in advance

proctology and lasers. She is also now the co-convenor for the FIAGES BOARD. She

presently heads the Department of Advance Proctology and Department of

Laparoscopic Surgery in Jyoti Hospital, Jaipur. Her rich clinical career in performing

thousands of surgeries over a span of nearly one and half decade, and her vision for

quality and excellence made her establish a first of its kind department, specifically in

proctocare and minimal access surgeries. The department offers a plethora of surgeries

and the most advance techniques, like the STARR for severe constipation, staplers and

lasers for piles, fistula and fissures, and various types of mesh repairs for all hernias.

Mykhailo Bilousov student of Lviv Danylo Halytsky National Medical University

gave retrospective analysis of the case of successful surgical repair of congenital

diaphragmatic hernia. The abstract aimed to attract attention of the scientists all over

the world to the CDH problem in order to find new ways of its treatment. It showed

the great interest of the author in improving the health and well-being of the

population. He focused on achieving positive results in medicine and gaining

improvement in the methods of treatment of severe and rare pathologies

Jaya Maheshwari is a prominent dignified surgeon and has pursued minimal access

surgery moving further in her career. During her academic journey she had been

awarded a couple of fellowships in laparoscopy from the top institutes. Ongoing with

her pursuit for academic excellence she specialized and got certified in advance

proctology and lasers. She is also now the co-convenor for the FIAGES BOARD. She

presently heads the Department of Advance Proctology and Department of

Laparoscopic Surgery in Jyoti Hospital, Jaipur. Her rich clinical career in performing

thousands of surgeries over a span of nearly one and half decade, and her vision for

quality and excellence made her establish a first of its kind department, specifically in

proctocare and minimal access surgeries. The department offers a plethora of

surgeries and the most advance techniques, like the STARR for severe constipation,

staplers and lasers for piles, fistula and fissures, and various types of mesh repairs for

all hernias

Silvia Melgar, PhD, is an APC Faculty Investigator under the Host - Microbe

Dialogue Research theme in the APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork

(UCC), Ireland. She received her PhD in Immunology from Umeå University in

Sweden, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship and a Senior Research Scientist

position at AstraZeneca R&D Mölndal, Sweden. Dr Melgar joined the APC in 2008

as a Principal scientist under the GlaxoSmithKline-APC collaboration and she

became an Investigator in the APC in 2012. Dr Melgar’ s research interests include 1)

the identification of novel molecular mechanisms associated to diet - host - bacteria

interactions and their relevance to health and intestinal disorders such as inflammatory

bowel disease (IBD) and colorectal cancer; 2) identification and pre-clinical

evaluation of novel therapies for inflammatory and malignant conditions in the

gastrointestinal tract in animal models and in in vitro cell systems.

Davor Štimac is a Professor in the university of rijeka. He is Director of Clinical

Hospital Center Rijeka from 2016. Head of the Clinic for Internal Medicine of the

Clinical Hospital Center Rijeka from the year 2014. Deputy Head of the Department

of Internal Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Rijeka from the

year 2001. He is member in the following societies Croatian Medical Association-

member of the Executive Board, Croatian Gastroenterological Society - Member of

the Steering Committee, Croatian Pancreatic Club – President, Croatian Society for

Thickness - the President, Croatian Society for Health Care Quality Improvement -

Vice President, World Gastroenterology Organization (WGO) - a member of the

Global Guidelines and Publication Board and a member of the Trainers' Trainers

(TTT), United European Gastroenterology Federation (UEGF) - a member of the

General Assembly, European Association of Gastroenterology, Endoscopy and

Nutrition (EAGEN) - Member of the Board of Directors, European Board for

Gastroenterology and Hepatology (EBGH) - Member of the Management Board,

UEMS Section for Gastroenterology - HLZ representative. He had published about

121articles. Editor for 7 books and had 21 chapters in the books, 71 work in other

indices.

Biljana Vuletic, is Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Faculty of Medical

Scineces University of Kragujevac and Chief of the Department of Gastroenterology

of Pediatric clinic and a full ESPGHAN member. She received degree in medicine

from the University of Belgrade. She started her residency in pediatrics at the

University Children s Hospital University of Belgrade. There she also trained in

Pediatric endoscopy and ultrasonography. She was finished two hands-on Courses in

UK, Sheffield Children’s Hospital. She has been accepted by OMI fondation, Austria,

for Observer ship program at the Medical University of Graz, Universities

Kinderklinik LKH Graz two times. Her mainly cliical interests include chronic

intestinal failure, Coeliac disease and clinical nutrition. She has summary 168

publications including authored or co-authored papers in peer-reviewed journals and

also chapters in the national Monographs and Textbooks published in Serbia.

Leonid Pavlovskyi is from Kyiv, Ukraine. He graduated in the National Medical

University in 2014. He is working as a doctor in the department of Gastroenterology.

Since 2014, He is working in one of the central hospital in gastroenterology

department. He is an assistant professor in the department of Internal Medicine,

National Medical University

Sami Salahia. Sami Salahia is co-founder at MRSA Group and Genome Medical

Research Association in the UAE. He is a 5th year medical student (Candidate

medical Doctor) at Ain Shams University in Egypt with an interest in medical

research and have a number of publications in peer reviewed journals. Being a Team

Leader, he gives training workshops to Undergraduate Medical Students in Egypt and

the UAE Specially for Secondary Research.

Olga V. Akopova is a principal investigator at Circulation department of AA

Bogomoletz Institute of Physiology, National Academy of Science of Ukraine, Kiev,

Ukraine. Specialization: biochemistry, physiology.

Research interests: 1) Mitochondrial potassium transport. 2) mKATP channels, their

cell-specific properties and the interaction with physiological and pharmacological

ligands. 3) The impact of K+ transport on mitochondrial bioenergetics and

metabolism (reactive oxygen and nitrogen species production, Ca2+ transport, ATP

synthesis)

Yusuf Gunay graduated from Ankara University medical school in 1999 and then

completed a general surgery residency at Ankara Numune Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.

He then completed his first abdominal transplant surgery fellowship at The Ohio

State University in 2010 and followed by MIS fellowship at University of Iowa in

2011 and the second Abdominal Transplant surgery fellowship at University of

Pittsburgh Medical Center in June 2017. Currently, he is an assistant professor at

Bulent Ecevit University, Zonguldak, Turkey. He has many publications mainly in

abdominal transplant surgery.

Dustov Abdusamad is Professor from the Institute of Gastroenterology in Republic of

Tajikistan. He is Presently Working as the head of Department of virology in the

Institute of Gastroenterology in the Republic of Tajikistan

Ramazanova Zamira works for Institute of Gastroenterology in the department of

Virology at Republic of Tajikistan. She has published more than 30 papers in reputed

journals. She had attended many International Conferences and presented her research

work on Virology.

Yusuf Gunay graduated from Ankara University medical school in 1999 and then

completed a general surgery residency at Ankara Numune Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.

He then completed his first abdominal transplant surgery fellowship at The Ohio

State University in 2010 and followed by MIS fellowship at University of Iowa in

2011 and the second Abdominal Transplant surgery fellowship at University of

Pittsburgh Medical Center in June 2017. Currently, he is an assistant professor at

Bulent Ecevit University, Zonguldak, Turkey. He has many publications mainly in

abdominal transplant surgery.

A.S.M.A. Raihan has been working in the department of Gastroenterology,

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. His research

interest is focused in Irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, peptic

ulcer disease and Helicobacter pylori infection. His important works are profile of

ulcerative colitis in Bangladesh, presented in APDW, 2006, profile of patients of

Crohn's disease in Bangladesh, Symptomatic overlap in patients with diarrhea

predominant irritable bowel syndrome and microscopic colitis in Bangladeshi

population and histopathological alteration in post infectious irritable bowel syndrome.

He developed a clinical scoring system to differentiate difficult to diagnose cases of

intestinal tuberculosis and Crohn’s disease and presented his work in Asia Pacific

Digestive Week, Kobe, Japan in 2016. He has got more than 50 publications and he

supervised more than 50 theses.

Ahmed is a consultant gastroenterologist at University Hospital Southampton NHS

Foundation Trust and visiting consultant at East Sussex Hospitals NHS foundation

trust Eastbourne He is also an Hon. Senior clinical lecturer at the University of

Southampton UK. His research interests include investigating the changes in the smell

of faeces and breathe in order to understand the pathophysiological mechanisms of GI

disorders and to develop a non-invasive biomarker. Through formal laboratory

research, Dr Ahmed studied the faecal volatile metabolomics profiles of patients with

Liver disease ( NAFLD) , IBD and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in comparison

with healthy individuals, and was awarded the degree of Doctorate of Medicine (MD)

by University of the Bristol in 2012. Ahmed is on the reviewer panel of several

national and international journals, including Gut, PLoS One, Journal of

Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease and BMJ.

Kenan Yusif Zade holds an MD and PhD Degree from Azerbaijan Medical

University, Azerbaijan. He is the Head of Military Hospital of State Border Service,

Azerbaijan. His professional fields are general surgery, gastroenterology and invasive

endoscopy. In 2007, he founded an Association of Turkish-Azerbaijani Endoscopic

Surgeons. He is also the President-elect (2017-2019) of Ambroise Paré International

Military Forum (APIMSF). His second education is business management. He holds

an MBA Degree from Maastricht School of Management, The Netherlands and

EMBA Degree from ADA University, Azerbaijan

J. Petkovic-Dabic graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in 2005, then the Master of

Health Policies and Management at the University of Belgrade Medical School.

Employed as head of the health sector in the Health Insurance Fund of the Republic of

Serbia. Active English speaking. Currently, I am planning the treatment for hepatitis

C and all funded biological medicines. I am very interested in new molecules and

their application in the treatment of very serious illness

Yusuf Gunay graduated from Ankara University medical school in 1999 and then

completed a general surgery residency at Ankara Numune Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.

He then completed his first abdominal transplant surgery fellowship at The Ohio

State University in 2010 and followed by MIS fellowship at University of Iowa in

2011 and the second Abdominal Transplant surgery fellowship at University of

Pittsburgh Medical Center in June 2017. Currently, he is an assistant professor at

Bulent Ecevit University, Zonguldak, Turkey. He has many publications.

Nany El Gayar is Assistant professor of internal medicine, Geriatrics unit at

Alexandria University, Egypt. She had master degree in Rheumatology and doctor

degree in Geriatrics. She published more than 15 papers in reputed journals.