Livers Webinar | Liver Fibrosis: Mechanisms, Targets, Assessment and Treatment
the chairs
Fibrosis is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it can be the final state of healed inflammation as scar tissue; on the other hand, it is frequently associated with a reduction in or loss of organ function. Moreover, it is a surrogate parameter that indicates the progression of the disease to liver cirrhosis or even hepatocellular carcinoma. This is especially true for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, a pandemic disorder associated with Western lifestyles and diets. To influence organ fibrosis, it is important to better understand its induction, perpetuation and termination at the molecular level. The induction of liver fibrosis may be metabolic (e.g., alcohol, diet and drugs), infectious (e.g., viruses), autoimmune (e.g., primary biliary cholangitis) or due to monogenetic defects (e.g., increased iron storage). The molecular mechanisms leading to final-stage fibrosis are very different depending on its pathogenesis. This Webinar aims to provide some insights into basic and clinical aspects of hepatic fibrogenesis.
Date: 14 December 2023
Time: 2:00 pm CET | 8:00 am EST | 9:00 pm CST Asia
Webinar ID: 864 0887 3395
Webinar Secretariat: journal.webinar@mdpi.com
Meet the Event Chairs
Meet Our Speakers
Prof. Dr. Jonel Trebicka
Department of Internal Medicine B, University Clinic Muenster, University of Münster, Germany;
Prof. Dr. Trebicka is Director of Medical Department B of the University Clinic Münster in Germany since May 2022. He is also coordinator of H2020-Project MICROB-PREDICT and PREDICT study in the European Foundation for Study of Chronic Liver Failure (EFCLIF) in Barcelona, Spain. He received the medical degree (2004) and one year later, Dr. Trebicka got his Dr. med. at the University of Bonn and in 2014 his PhD at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), and he is Adjunct Professor for Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense (Denmark) since 2015. Prof. Dr. Trebicka was appointed 2018 as Professor for Translational Hepatology and Coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Universitary Liver Center at the Department of Internal Medicine at the University Clinic Frankfurt in Germany. His field of interest and publications are basic and clinical research on end-stage liver diseases (liver fibrosis, acute-on-chronic liver failure and portal hypertension), HIV and vascular liver diseases with special emphasis on chronic inflammation, genetic mechanisms and intracellular signaling (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Trebicka%20j&filter=years.2003-2030&sort=date).
Prof. Dr. Leo A. van Grunsven
Liver Cell Biology Research Group, Faculty of Medicine & Pharmacy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium;
Leo van Grunsven obtained his Biology degree in 1992 from the University of Utrecht and his PhD in Life Sciences in 1996 from the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon. He had his postdoctoral training at the NINDS/NIH (Bethesda, USA) and the KU Leuven (Belgium) and joined the lab of the late Prof. Albert Geerts at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB, Belgium) in 2006, and became an assistant Professor in 2009 and heads the Liver Cell Biology research group since. His group studies molecular mechanisms involved in liver -homeostasis, -fibrosis and –regeneration with a special focus on hepatic stellate cells. His group was the first to identify autophagy, AGE- and HIPPO-signaling as key mechanisms involved in hepatic stellate cell activation during liver fibrogenesis. His team established the first hepatocyte-injury dependent in vitro liver fibrosis model by using spheroid cultures of human hepatocytes and hepatic stellate cells (2016) and established 4 liver cell-type spheroid cultures of primary mouse cells in which NAFLD/NASH can be studied (2022). Current research efforts include the development of iPSC-derived liver cell models and investigation of the regulation of stress pathways in hepatic stellate cells and other sinudoidal liver cells during acute and chronic liver injury. Through these efforts he wishes to find novel approaches to tackle chronic liver disease.
Leo van Grunsven (co-)authored >120 peer-reviewed publications (>65 last or first author) and has an h-index of 45 (Web of Science). He currently heads a team of 2 post-docs, 3 technicians and 8 PhD candidates.
Sponsors and Partners
Organizer
Hepatic fibrosis is characterized by the formation and deposition of excess fibrous connective tissue. The prevalence rates of liver fibrosis have increased dramatically during the last years. Multidisciplinary panels of experts have developed practice guidelines, including recommendations of preferred therapeutic approaches to a specific cause of hepatic disease, stage of fibrosis, or co-morbidities associated with ongoing loss of hepatic function. In addition, basic scientists have developed novel techniques that will help to unravel the molecular drivers and pathways that trigger fibrosis initiation and progression.
In this Webinar, recent advances in basic and clinical science research of hepatic fibrogenesis are discussed.
The webinar was hosted via Zoom and required registration to attend. The full recording can be found below. In order to learn about future webinars, you can sign up to our newsletter by clicking “Subscribe” at the top of the page
Recording:
"Liver Fibrosis: Mechanisms, Targets, Assessment and Treatment"
Edited by Prof. Dr. Ralf Weiskirchen and Prof. Dr. Tilman Sauerbruch