Inaugural Academic Symposium
October 13–14, 2022
Sharing insights and innovations
We are eager to convene our friends, colleagues and collaborators to reflect on the history of hepatology at VCU, celebrate current progress in liver-related research and look to the future. We hope you will join us for two days of sessions focused on liver disease and metabolic health with a strong emphasis on translation, team science, public-private collaboration and development of novel paradigms of care.
October 13-14, 2022
Free
Program - Day 1
7:30 – 8 a.m.
Registration and continental breakfast
8 – 8:05 a.m.
Welcome
Arun Sanyal, M.D.
Director, Stravitz-Sanyal Institute for Liver Disease & Metabolic Health
8:05 – 8:15 a.m.
Welcome
Michael Rao, Ph.D.
President, VCU Health and Virginia Commonwealth University
8:15 – 8:30 a.m.
Welcome
Patricia Sime, M.D., FRCP
Chair, Department of Internal Medicine, VCU School of Medicine
8:30 – 9 a.m.
Vision for the institute
Arun Sanyal, M.D.
9 – 9:30 a.m.
Break
9:30 – 9:50 a.m.
Keynote Lecture: The conquest of HCV
Sir Michael Houghton
Canada Excellence Research Chair in Virology, University of Alberta
Co-recipient of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
9:50 – 10:05 a.m.
Metabophenotypes and relationship to liver transplant outcomes in NASH
Shadab Siddiqui, M.D.
Associate Professor, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, VCU School of Medicine
10:05 – 10:20 a.m.
Sphingosine signaling and fibrosis in cholestatic liver disease
Huiping Zhou, Ph.D, M.S.
Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, VCU School of Medicine
10:20 – 10:35 a.m.
AEG1 and development of hepatocellular cancer
Devanand Sarkar, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, VCU School of Medicine Associate Scientific Director of Cancer Therapeutics, VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine
10:35 – 10:50 a.m.
Does NASH acceleration affect diastolic dysfunction?
Stefano Toldo, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Division of Cardiology, VCU School of Medicine
11 – 11:20 a.m.
Microbial transformation of bile acids and their implications for clostridium difficile infections
Philip Hylemon, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, VCU School of Medicine
11:20 – 11:35 a.m.
Bile acid biome and NASH
Ekaterina Smirnova, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Biostatistics, VCU School of Medicine
11:35 – 11:50 a.m.
Impact of pretransplant hepatic encephalopathy on global neurocognitive outcomes post liver transplantation
Jasmohan Bajaj, M.D.
Professor, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, VCU School of Medicine
Noon – 1 p.m.
Lunch
1 – 1:20 p.m.
Keynote Lecture: Mechanisms and regulation of fibrosis resolution in chronic liver disease
Scott Friedman, M.D.
Dean for Therapeutic Discovery and Chief of the Division of Liver Diseases, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
1:20 – 1:35 p.m.
Keynote Lecture: Epigenetic regulation of hepatic fibrosis
Sayed Obaidullah Aseem, M.D.
Gastroenterology, Mayo Clinic
1:35 – 1:50 p.m.
How FIB-4 was developed
Richard Sterling, M.D.
Professor, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, VCU School of Medicine
1:50 – 2:05 p.m.
Evaluation of fibrosis progression using second-harmonic generated imaging
Nicole Ng
Medical Student, VCU School of Medicine
Academic Education and Research Director, Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association
2:05 – 2:20 p.m.
Keynote Lecture: Single nucleus RNA seq to gain novel insights on NASH progression
Prakash Ramachandran, M.D.
Clinician Scientist, Institute for Regeneration and Repair, Centre for Inflammation Research, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
2:30 – 3 p.m.
Break
3 – 3:20 p.m.
Keynote Lecture: Unmet needs and solutions to improve outcomes of alcoholic hepatitis
Vijay Shah, M.D.
Charles M. Gatton and Mayo Distinguished Investigator
Chair, Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Mayo Clinic
3:20 – 3:35 p.m.
Ascorbic acid for alcoholic hepatitis with sepsis
Stephanie Taylor
Senior Clinical Research Coordinator, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, VCU School of Medicine
3:35 – 3:50 p.m.
Digital approaches for risk assessment of alcohol recidivism after alcoholic hepatitis
Albert Arias, M.D.
Associate Professor, Division of Addiction Medicine, VCU School of Medicine
3:50 – 4:05 p.m.
Extracellular vesicle mediated regulation of behavior by the liver
Maren Smith, Ph.D.
Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, VCU School of Medicine
4:05 – 4:20 p.m.
VCU experience with liver transplantation for acute alcoholic hepatitis
Nikki Duong, M.D.
Gastroenterology Fellow, VCU School of Medicine
4:35 – 4:55 p.m.
Keynote Lecture: Evolving trends in the care of end-stage liver disease worldwide
Shiv Sarin, M.D.
Senior Professor and Head, Department of Hepatology Director, Institute of Liver and Biliary Science
Adjunct Professor, Molecular Medicine, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
4:55 – 5 p.m.
Concluding remarks
Richard Sterling, M.D.
Professor, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, VCU School of Medicine
Program – Day 2
8 – 8:20 a.m.
Keynote Lecture: Making genomics-based NASH management mainstream
Naga Chalasani, M.D.
Professor, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Indiana University School of Medicine
8:20 – 8:35 a.m.
Mechanistic basis of PNPLA3 and HSD17B13 interactions as determinants of liver disease severity
Arun Sanyal, M.D.
Director, Stravitz-Sanyal Institute for Liver Disease & Metabolic Health
8:35 – 8:50 a.m.
The diet inflammatory index
Scott Strayer, M.D.
Chair, Department of Family Medicine and Epidemiology, VCU School of Medicine
8:50 – 9:05 a.m.
Sex differences in aging related inflammation in the liver
Madison Isbell
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, VCU School of Medicine
9:05 – 9:20 a.m.
Keynote Lecture: The Liver Forum as a platform for acceleration of drug development for liver disease
Veronica Miller, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor, Executive Director Forum for Collaborative Research, UC Berkeley School of Public Health
9:20 – 9:45 a.m.
Break
9:45 – 10:05 a.m.
Keynote Lecture: Real world evidence – the TARGET approach
Michael Fried, M.D.
Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder, Target RWE Health Evidence Solutions, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
10:05 – 10:20 a.m.
Keynote Lecture: Metabolic health in rural versus urban Asia – West Bengal Liver Institute VCU collaborations
Abhijit Chowdhury, M.D.
Clinical Professor and Chair of Liver Disease, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
10:20 – 10:35 a.m.
Keynote Lecture: VCU–Avant Sante initiative on metabolic health in Latin America
Sitaraman Raju, Ph.D.
Founder and CEO, Avant Santé & EtCurae, Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico
10:35 – 10:50 a.m.
Keynote Lecture: VCU–NUS initiative on integrated approaches for metabolic health in South Asia
Dan Yock Young, Ph.D., MMed
Senior Consultant, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, National University Hospital
Senior Consultant, Adult Liver Transplantation Programme, National University Centre for Organ Transplantation, National University Hospital
Associate Professor, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore
10:50 – 11:00 a.m.
A look to the future
Arun Sanyal, M.D.
Director, Stravitz-Sanyal Institute for Liver Disease & Metabolic Health
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