XVIII KONGRES POLSKIEGO TOWARZYSTWA GASTROENTEROLOGII

Professor of Medicine, SWS Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney
Director, Pancreatic Research Group, SWS Clinical School, UNSW and Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research, Sydney
Editor-in-Chief, Pancreatology.
Minoti Apte is internationally recognised as a leading researcher in pancreatology, and is well known for her pioneering work on the pathogenesis of pancreatic fibrosis, a characteristic feature of chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer.
Professor Apte’s achievements have been recognised by 3 major awards in recent years –
2014 : Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) from the Government of Australia
2015 : New South Wales Woman of the Year award from the State Government of New South Wales
2016 : The Professor Rob Sutherland Make a Difference Award for Outstanding Cancer Research from the Cancer Institute of NSW in 2016.




Prof. Antonio Gasbarrini was born in Bologna the October 11th, 1963. From 1990 to 1993 he was a Clinical and Research Fellow at the Gastroenterology and Liver Transplantation Departments of the University of Pittsburgh (USA). He became Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine in the Catholic University of Rome in 1995 and from 2000 he is Associate Professor of Internal Medicine. From 2006 to 2008 he was Secretary General of the Italian Association for the Study of the Liver (AISF) and actually he is the President of the Italian Foundation for Research in Hepatology (FIRE). He is member of several National (Italian Society of Internal Medicine-SIMI, Italian Society of Gastroenterology-SIGE, Italian Association Study of Liver Diseases-AISF) and International (American Association Study of Liver Diseases-AASLD; European Association Study of the Liver-EASL, European Helicobacter Sudy Group-EHSG) Scientific Societies. From 2009 he is the National Coordinator of the Gut Microbiota Study Group of the Italian Society of Gastroenterology.
He is an author of more than 800 papers: 450 of which as full papers on indexed International Scientific Journals. He was co-author of more than 1200 abstracts presented at National and International Meetings. He has an impact factor for his publications over 1070 and an H-Index over 50.




Professor dr. med. Frank Lammert studied medicine and ecomomics in Düsseldorf, Hagen and Aachen. After a fellowship at Harvard Medical School (Boston) he became Assistant Professor of Hepatology at RWTH Aachen and Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at University of Bonn. In 2008, he was appointed as Full Professor of Internal Medicine and Director of the Department of Medicine II (Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology) at Saarland University. Prof. Lammert is Associate Editor of the Journal of Hepatology and serves on the Editorial Board of Hepatology. He was member of the Governing Board of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) and is the current President of the German Gastroenterology Association (DGVS). Prof. Lammert is an expert for hepatobiliary diseases and was Chairmen of the EASL Clinical Practice Guideline panel for gallstone disease




Markus M. Lerch is a professor of medicine at the University of Greifswald and Chairman of the Department of Medicine A at the University Hospital. He grew up in the Rhineland and majored in Philosophy and Art History at the University of Freiburg before attending Medical School in Freiburg, Glasgow, Toronto and at the University of Massachusetts. He received his MD (magna cum laude) from Freiburg in 1984. After a Pathology Internship in Freiburg he completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the Technical University of Aachen. On a DFG research scholarship he spend three years at Harvard and the University of Milano, Italy, where he was trained in pathophysiology and cell biology, respectively. Following a GI fellowship in Ulm and his board certification in Gastroenterology (1993), he obtained a second doctorate (Habiliation, D.Sc. equivalent) in 1994 for work on the cell biology of pancreatitis from the University of Ulm. He then moved to the Max-Planck-Institut for Biochemistry in Munich to join the Molecular Biology Department of Axel Ullrich as a staff scientist and was board certified in Biochemistry. From 1996 he served as an assistant professor and consultant gastroenterologist in Homburg (Saar), and as tenured associate professor at the University of Münster (1997-2003) before he accepted a full professorship at the University of Greifswald (founded in 1456) where he serves as chairman of the Department of Medicine A since 2007.
The research of his group focusses on the pathophysiology, cell biology and genetics of pancreatic disorders, is by design translational and has led to several patents (e.g. EP06776693.1, EP10164624, EP11167708) and the initiation of 4 multicentre clinical trials (e.g. ISRCTN 00142233 & ISRCTN 46556454) for which Markus Lerch is the principal investigator. His research has been supported by the European Union (EU-FP7, EU-EFRE), the DFG (German Research Council), the BMBF (German Federal Ministry of Science and Education) and the Deutsche Krebshilfe/Mildred Scheel Stiftung (German Cancer Aid) as well as several foundations and charities. He just received a centre of excellence grant until 2022.
Markus Lerch has served as secretary of European Pancreatic Club, as President of the International Association of Pancreatology and as Associate Editor of the Journal GUT. In 2017 he completed a 7 year term as president and congress president of the German Gastroenterological Association and in 2018 he will host the European Pancreatic Club meeting in Berlin. In 2015 the President of the Federal Republic appointed him to the ‘Council of Science and Humanities’ (Wissenschaftsrat) of the German government.




Dr. Giovanni Maconi qualified from Pavia University in 1989 and trained in Gastroenterology at Luigi Sacco University Hospital, Milan, Italy. He trained in gastrointestinal ultrasound at the gastroenterological departments of Catholic University in Rome and S.Orsola-Malpighi University Hospital in Bologna, Italy. He was appointed Associate Professor of Gastroenterology at the University of Milan in 2006 at the Luigi Sacco University Hospital, where he is actually the chief of the gastrointestinal ultrasonography unit of the Division of Gastroenterology. Dr. Maconi has published over 160 peer-reviewed article (IF>450; H-index: 40), 23 book chapters and is Editor of 3 international books on the imaging of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. His research interests include clinical and therapeutics of inflammatory bowel disease, diverticular disease of the colon, treatment of H. pylori infection and imaging and ultrasound of the gastrointestinal tract. He is also currently involved in trials and learning programs on ultrasound of the gastrointestnal tract, in particular in inflammatory bowel disease, diverticular disease of the colon and in diagnostics and therapeutics of inflammatory bowel diseases.




Professor Jean Morisset after a BA in arts, got a BSc in biology in 1965 from the Universite de Sherbrooke in 1965 and a PhD from the same institution in 1968. Then he went in Augusta Georgia USA for a post-doctoral stay under the direction of Dr Paul D. Webster for two years and come back to the department of biology of the Universite de Sherbrooke as professor until 1995 and then moved to the medical school of the same university in1995 till now.
He is a very well known pancreatologist, the author of 216 publications in International Journals as well as 311 presentations in conferences. He also published 18 books and he was the Editor of one book with Travis Solomon entitled “Growth of the gastrointestinal tract: gastrointestinal hormones and growth factors” published in CRC Press in 1991. He is a member of 6 scientific societies and an honorary member of the European Pancreatic Club. As a master and great friend of polish pancreatologist he got also honorary membership the Polish pancreatic Club.




Professor Simon Travis FRCP is one of the UK’s leading gastroenterologists. He is the immediate Past-President of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO), Fellow of Linacre College at the University of Oxford and Consultant Gastroenterologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. Professor Travis qualified from St Thomas’ Hospital London in 1981 and trained in Gastroenterology both in London and in Oxford, where he did his PhD on colonic epithelial electrophysiology. He was formerly Chair of the IBD Section of the BSG (2002-5), Member of Council of the British Society of Gastroenterology (2004-2007) and Chair of the scientific committee of ECCO (2007-2010). Clinical and research interests focus on clinical prediction, novel therapy and endoscopic assessment in inflammatory bowel disease. He is the author of 6 books, 30 chapters, over 230 papers and many international guidelines. He is on the Editorial Board of Gut (IF 14.8) and Journal of Crohn’s & Colitis (IF 6.2), among other journals.




David M. Underwood Chair of Medicine in Digestive Disorders, Department of Medicine
Professor of Medicine, Institute for Academic Medicine
Director, Lynda K. and David M. Underwood Center for Digestive Disorders
Houston Methodist
Weill Cornell Medical College