Prof. Stephan Urban
Professor Stephan Urban is head of the Translational Virology unit at the Department of Infectious Diseases, Molecular Virology at Heidelberg University Hospital. He is also Professor at the Faculty for Biosciences at the University of Heidelberg and Project Coordinator in the DZIF TTU Hepatitis. He completed a Diploma in Biochemistry at the University of Tübingen in 1991 and was awarded a Ph.D. in 1995 under Prof. Dr. P.H. Max- Planck-Institut für Biochemie, Martinsried and undertook Postdoctoral research at the Centre for Molecular Biology (ZMBH), Heidelberg University with Prof. Dr. H. Schaller. Between 2008 and 2012 he was Project coordinator of the BMBF-network "Innovative Therapies” and from 2011 Project coordinator in the DZIF TTU hepatitis. In 2014 he was awarded with the 1. DZIF Research Award.
Professor Urban’s research interests include Molecular mechanisms of Hepatitis B- and Hepatitis D Virus/host interactions with a focus on the early and late events of viral infection; Identification of hepadnaviral receptors and structural analyses of virus receptor interactions; Development of novel cell culture systems and animal models for HBV and HDV; Clinical development of entry inhibitors for HBV and HDV infection; Development of hepatotropic drugs for the therapy of liver diseases.
Between 2008 and 2014 Professor Urban has published in numerous peer reviewed journals on Hepatitis B, C and D. He is the recipient of the Pettenkofer Price of the Pettenkofer Foundation, Fellowship of the Heinz Schaller and Chica Foundations and Study Foundation of the German People Awards.
Dr. Ashley Brown
Dr. Ashley Brown is a Consultant Hepatologist at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington and Adjunct Reader in Medicine at Imperial College London. He has a major clinical and research interest in viral hepatitis, has been investigator on more than 40 clinical trials of novel hepatitis therapies and has published nearly 50 papers in peer-reviewed journals. He is currently heavily engaged in developing policy for ensuring access and pathways into care for difficult-to-reach populations, including prisoners and PWID, and looking at the health economics of screening for and treating HCV.
He is former Chair of the London Joint Working Group on HCV in PWID and of the British Viral Hepatitis Group; he sits on the HepC Coalition; and has recently been co-opted onto the European Liver Patients’ Association Task Force
Prof. Steven Flamm
Steven L. Flamm, MD is a Professor of Medicine and Surgery with the Division of Hepatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. He serves as the Chief of Transplantation Hepatology and Medical Director of Liver Transplantation.
Dr. Flamm received his MD degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He completed both a clinical fellowship in gastroenterology and a research fellowship in gastroenterology and hepatology at Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He then received further specialized training, completing a clinical fellowship in hepatology and liver transplantation at The Deaconess Hospital, Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Flamm is a member of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), and is a fellow in the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG). He has served as the Region 7 Representative to the UNOS Liver and Intestine Committee and on the Publication and Practice Guidelines Committees of the AASLD. Currently, he is a trustee of the AASLD Foundation and chairs the AASLD Development Committee. Dr. Flamm is also a member of the Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee of the AGA and the Illinois Hepatitis C State Task Force. Dr. Flamm was also the 2015 American Liver Foundation Illinois Chapter Honoree.
Dr. Flamm has published widely in the field of hepatic diseases and has spoken both nationally and internationally on many other liver-related topics including viral hepatitis, autoimmune hepatitis, hepatic encephalopathy, and liver transplantation. He has an active clinical research program for patients with many different chronic liver diseases including chronic viral hepatitis (HBV and HCV) hepatic encephalopathy, acute liver failure and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
Prof. Gideon Hirschfield
Gideon Hirschfield graduated from Trinity College Oxford in 1994 (having been awarded the University of Oxford Wronker Prize for most outstanding performance in the Final Honour School), and subsequently from Cambridge where he completed his clinical studies with distinction. He undertook junior medical posts at the Hammersmith and Royal Brompton hospitals before moving to a MRC Clinical Research Fellowship at UCL. There he worked within the uniquely translational National Amyloidosis Centre/Centre for Acute Phase Proteins, with Sir Mark Pepys FRS as his supervisor. His PhD was focussed on the development of inhibitors of C-reactive protein. He completed his advanced Gastroenterology and Hepatology training in Cambridge, and was awarded Specialist status in 2007. Until January 2012 he worked in Toronto, Canada, where he was a Staff Physician and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University Health Network and University of Toronto. During this time he managed one of the largest autoimmune liver disease cohorts in North America, and with his colleague Prof Kathy Siminovitch published the seminal genetic observations underpinning the IL-12 signalling axis as critical to the pathophysiology of PBC. He now divides his time between translational research in autoimmune liver disease, and his clinical, Transplant/Hepatology, practice at the QE hospital. In particular the cohorts of patients with PBC, PSC and AIH he manages are some of the largest internationally, providing Gideon unique clinical skills in their management and recruitment to clinical trials of novel therapies.