2020 Webinar: Dietary Recommendations for NAFLD Patients: What Do I Tell My Patients?

Manuel Romero Gómez (Sevilla, Spain, 1967) is Full-Professor of Medicine at the University of Seville, Spain. Digestive Diseases Department at Virgen del Rocío University Hospitals. Head of group for translational research in liver diseases (SeLiver) at Institute of Biomedicine of Seville (IBIS). Coordinator of the Spanish Registry of NAFLD/NASH (HepaMET) and co-coordinator of the EASL supported European Registry of NAFLD. Principal Investigator in the Spanish Network for Research in Digestive and liver diseases (CiberEHD). He is participating actively in NASH-related European Projects: Sub-project-7 leader at European project FLIP (2010-2013), National Leader (SPAIN) at LITMUS (2017-2022) and coordinator of NASH-PI (2020-2021) an international grant.

Member of commission 527 from ISCIII and Spanish Agency for Evaluation of Research (AEI). He received the XI Award Javier Benjumea Puigcerver in investigation, Universidad de Sevilla-Focus Abengoa, 2014. He was awarded with the Medal of The City of Seville in 2016. He has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers on gastrointestinal and liver diseases with H-index 59. He has protected 10 patents and participated as PI in more than 20 competitive grants for research.

Michelle T. Long, MD, MSc is a physician-scientist with an expertise in Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Boston University. She completed her clinical training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston Medical Center. Dr. Long is the Director of the NAFLD Research Center and the Director of Clinical Research for the Section of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Her clinical and research interests center on the relationship between NAFLD and cardiovascular disease. Dr. Long is primarily interested in patient-oriented research investigating fibrosis and inflammation in patients with NAFLD and in imaging and risk stratification strategies for hepatic fibrosis. Dr. Long has projects at Boston Medical Center and at the Framingham Heart Study where she is the PI of a study evaluating the prevalence and risk factors for liver fat (steatosis) and fibrosis. In Framingham, she is investigating the clinical and genetic correlates of hepatic steatosis and fibrosis as measured by transient elastography.

Zachary Henry, MD is a transplant hepatologist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. He works in both the general hepatology and liver transplant clinics and has a special interest in the management of gastric variceal bleeding. He trained in the endoscopic management of gastric varices under Dr. Stephen Caldwell at the University of Virginia and has maintained a strong multi-disciplinary clinical practice in this field. In addition, he has published multiple articles on the management of gastric varices including a recent clinical practice update for the AGA.

Wayne Eskridge worked as an electrical engineer in software and electronics through a 50-year professional career. Eskridge held executive positions in both public and private corporations with worldwide responsibilities, and from startups to Fortune 500 firms. He was first diagnosed with liver disease in 2010, which progressed to cirrhosis by 2015. He has successfully managed his disease and as a result he became aware of an acute need for an educational resource from a patient perspective. His desire to help others avoid his experiences led him to the decision to become a patient advocate and to create the Fatty Liver Foundation.

Mazen Noureddin, MD, MHSc is the founding director of the Fatty Liver Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. His focus is on clinical and translational research in the area of NAFLD/NASH. Dr. Noureddin has conducted more than 35 investigational clinical studies of novel treatments for NASH. In addition, he has an interest in non-invasive testing and biomarkers of the field, especially metabolomics, serum biomarkers, trainset elastography, and magnetic resonance imaging techniques. Dr. Noureddin has published in all these areas. He has given invited lectures on NAFLD/NASH at national and international society meetings and serves on several steering committees/advisory boards for industry. He is the chair of the AASLD NASH special interest group education sub-committee and serves on the editorial board for the journals “Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology (CGH)” and “Gastroenterology”. He is also member of the incoming board of editors (2022) for Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology (CGH). He is funded by the National Cancer Institute.