As the autumn foliage gives way to winter snow, The Liver Meeting is upon us once again! This year we are back in the historic Back Bay of Boston ay Hynes Convention Center to meet our friends and colleagues around the world. UCSD is proud and excited to share our research endeavors with researchers and clinicians to help improve care across the globe. Throughout our division, we have 1 course director, 2 session moderators, 13+4 (Rohit’s presentations) oral presentations and 35 poster presentations, including 5 posters of distinction. The topics range from phase 1 to Phase 3 MASLD clinical trials results, to isolation of myenteric and submucosal plexus and co-culture with small intestinal organoids, and creating a population health disease management strategy for NAFLD in the VA.
BASIC SCIENCE
Dr. Debanjan Dhar, Assistant Professor, and Dr. Souradipta Ganguly, Assistant Project Scientist, have an oral presentation on macrophage heterogeneity during NASH regression and how it lends to our understanding of TREM2 dependent mechanisms that facilitate NASH and fibrosis resolution. They also share two posters on the role of cholestasis activated portal fibroblasts on regulation of hepatocyte senescence and hepatocarcinogenesis in aged Mdr2 KO mice, and using GalNAc delivery system to target IL-17RA in hepatocytes as a novel therapeutical approach.
Dr. Cristina Llorente, Assistant Adjunct Professor will be presenting her poster of distinction on her work in isolating myenteric and submucosal plexus from mouse gastrointestinal tract and subsequent co-culture with small intestinal organoids.
Dr. Bernd Schnabl, MD, Professor of Medicine (Director of Research, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology), and Director of San Diego Digestive Diseases Research Center, leads a lab deciphering the cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in the progression of chronic liver disease. He will have an oral presentation on the role of the microbiome in autoimmune liver disease. His lab members have several presentations to share as well:
Dr. Cynthia Hsu, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor will be moderating the Gut Microbiota-Liver Crosstalk session. She also has an oral presentation on the humanized microbiome to study liver diseases as part of the session: Basic Research Worskhop: Humanized Models: Tools to Advance Liver Disease Research, and a poster presentation on viral exposure and morbidity and mortality in alcohol associated liver disease. Dr. Noemi Cabre Basares, PhD, Postdoctoral scholar, has an oral presentation on experimental approaches to decipher pathogenesis in alcohol associated liver disease. Dr. Tomoo Yamazaki, MD, PhD, postdoctoral fellow has a poster on the association of serum Aryl Hydrocarbon Activity with Severity and Mortality in Alcohol-Associate Hepatitis.
CLINICAL RESEARCH
Dr. Nabil Noureddin, MD, one of our fellows working with Dr. Loomba, will be presenting his two posters on repeatability on MRI elastography liver stiffness and MRI PDFF in patients with cirrhosis, and repeatability of liver stiffness measurement by vibration controlled transient elastography and controlled attenutation parameter in patient with cirrhosis.
Dr. Veeral Ajmera, MD, Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine and Medical Director of Liver Transplantation, will be sharing his research as an oral presentation on the impact of genetic risk on the prevalence of advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis in prospectively assessed patients with type 2 diabetes during the Novel Biomarkers in MASLD/MASH session. He also has a poster presenting his work in hepatic recovery in patients with alcohol associated liver disease evaluated for early liver transplantation. Dr. Ajmera also serves as abstract reviewer and member of the MASLD SIG.
Dr. Monica Tincopa, MD, MS, Clinical Assistant Professor, will be moderating Friday’s session on Patient -centered management of MASLD. She will also be sharing her research as a poster presentation on impact of NAFLD on weight loss after bariatric surgery in a five year cohort.
Dr. Yuko Kono, MD, PhD, Clinical Professor, we be sharing her multicenter trial results as an oral presentation on clinical impact of CEUS on indeterminant liver nodules on MRI. Along with our GI fellow Dr. Maryam Zafer, Dr. Kono has a poster presenting their work on multidisciplinary improving HCC care in populations impacted by health disparities.
Dr. Heather Patton, Clinical Professor (GI Section Chief, San Diego VA), will be the co-course director for the Hepatology Skills Workshop. She will also be presenting a poster on her work in creating a population health disease management strategy for NAFLD in the Veterans Healthcare Administration.
Dr. Rohit Loomba, Professor of Medicine (Chief Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology), and the team at the UCSD MASLD research center will be presenting 9 oral presentations and 25 poster presentations (with four posters of distinction). Dr. Loomba will be presenting Emerging Therapeutics as part of the Cirrhosis as a multisystem disorder in the AASLD Annual Postgraduate Course, Applying AI for the diagnosis of liver fibrosis in fibrosis symposium, to Framework of biomarker development as part of the FDA Biomarker Working Group. The oral presentations within his group cover a wide breadth of topics: from a phase two trial studying the effect of fibrosis improvement in patients with cirrhosis with pegozafermin, results of phase 3 MAESTRO-NASH trial, novel serum metabolomic signature of PNPLA3 homozygosity in human metabolic dysfunction associated steatotic liver disease, to development and validation of the NAFLD familial risk score. Poster Presentations range from a multicenter study evaluating liver stiffness progression in those with and without diabetes, a Phase 2a investigational FGF21 analog on glycemic control and liver steatosis, the role of obeticholic acid in compensated NASH cirrhosis, to the role of resmetirom in thyroid hormone restoration in patients with NASH.
We can’t wait to see everyone in Boston November 10-November 13!
Dr. Yang has no conflicts of interest to report.
Dr. Loomba has received grant funding from Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, Astrazeneca, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Galectin Therapeutics, Gilead, Intercept, Hanmi, Intercept, Inventiva, Ionis, Janssen, Madrigal Pharmaceuticals, Merck, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Sonic Incytes and Terns Pharmaceuticals. He has also received consulting fees or honorarium from Aardvark Therapeutics, Altimmune, Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca, Cascade Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly, Gilead, Glympse bio, Inipharma, Intercept, Inventiva, Ionis, Janssen Inc., Lipidio, Madrigal, Neurobo, Novo Nordisk, Merck, Pfizer, Sagimet, 89 bio, Takeda, Terns Pharmaceuticals and Viking Therapeutics. He is also the Co-founder of LipoNexus Inc.
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