Dr. Manasi Agrawal, M.D., M.S.
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, USA
Manasi Agrawal, MD, MS, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and a gastroenterologist at the Mount Sinai Hospital, with focus in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Dr. Agrawal’s additional affiliations include the Department of Environmental Medicine at Mount Sinai and Center for Molecular Prediction of IBD, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark. Dr. Agrawal is the inaugural Director of Environmental Gastroenterology in the Henry D. Janowitz Division of Gastroenterology. Her research focuses on the role of the environment on IBD risk, towards disease prediction and prevention. She has ongoing works to characterize the role of PFAS, pesticides, microplastics, metals, and related exposures on intestinal inflammation and IBD. She is also interested in the role of environmental shifts in the global south contributing to increasing IBD incidence, and she collaborates with several global research networks. Dr. Agrawal is supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases K23 Career Development Award to study early life risk factors for IBD, the International Organization for the Study of IBD, the American College of Gastroenterology, the Helmsley Trust Fund, the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, among others. For her excellence in clinical and translational research, Dr. Agrawal has received the Healio Rising Disruptor Award (2024), The Faculty Council Junior Award at Mount Sinai (2024) and the Dr. Harold and Golden Lamport Clinical Research Award at Mount Sinai (2023).
Dr. Agrawal’s clinical focus is in caring for patients with IBD. She participates in writing guidelines relating to IBD care with the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organization and the American Gastroenterological Association. She serves as the Secretary of the New York Crohn's and Colitis Organization as well as on editorial boards of multiple GI journals.
Mr. René Anour, Chair EMA BMWP and Senior Clinical Expert/Head of National Scientific Advice
AGES, Austria
René Anour is working as a senior clinical expert for the Austrian Federal Office for Safety in Health Care, where he is involved in centralised European Marketing Authorisations and EMA Scientific Advice. He is furthermore Process Lead of National Scientific Advice at his agency. He has been a member of the EMA’s Biosimilar Medicinal Products Working Party since 2020 and has been elected the Working Party’s chair in 2023. He is furthermore a member of the HMA Biosimilar Working Group as well as the European Representative in the Biosimilar Group of the International Council for Harmonisation (ICH), a global harmonisation initiative for drug development.
Dr. Dider Baert,
Dr. Filip Baert,
AZ Delta
Dr. Peter Bossuyt, M.D., PhD
Imelda Hospital
Dr Bossuyt studied medicine at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, and graduated magna cum laude in 2004. He pursued his GI fellowship in several hospitals in Belgium and at UZ Leuven. After completing his GI fellowship in 2009, he took up a fellowship in advanced endoscopy at the Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam. Between 2010 and 2015 he was a consulting staff member at the University Hospitals of Leuven. He obtained a PhD entitled “Value of endoscopic scoring and imaging for the prognosis and follow up of IBD” at the University of Leuven in 2021. His research focuses on clinical and strategic trials in IBD and the definitions of endoscopic and imaging targets in IBD. His clinical works focuses on e-health tools in IBD and quality improvement projects.
He is currently international principal investigator of 3 clinical trials in IBD and endoscopy. He is an editorial board member of the Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis, past-president of the Belgian IBD Research and Development Group, past-board member of ECCO’s Clinical Research Committee, ClinCom and past-board member of the Belgian society of gastrointestinal endoscopy, BSGIE. He won the Belgian IBD research price in 2011, 2021 and 2025, the ESGE Innovation of the year award in 2018 and the ECCO IIS award in 2025. He published over 150 peer-reviewed articles in the NEJM, Lancet, JAMA, Gastroenterology, Gut, Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology, JCC among others (H-index 48).
Prof. Dr. Christiane Buskens, M.D., PhD
Dr. Clara Caenepeel,
ZOL
Dr. Ahmed Chaoui,
AZ Delta
Evva De Jonckere,
AZ Delta
Prof. Dr. Marc Ferrante, M.D., PhD
UZ Leuven
Dr. Liselotte Fierens, PhD
KU Leuven
In 2019, Liselotte graduated with a degree in Biomedical Sciences from the Catholic University of Leuven, specializing in Management and Communication. Later that year, she deepened her focus on the field of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), the subject of her master’s thesis, by starting a PhD with the Leuven IBD research group. After successfully defending her PhD on improving the quality of care for patients with IBD in March 2024, Liselotte continued her work as a postdoctoral researcher within the same group. In 2025, she stayed for five months at the Health Economics Research Centre at the University of Oxford, expanding her knowledge and expertise in health economics to support future research projects.
Prof. Marietta Iacucci, M.D., PhD
Univeristy College Cork, Ireland
Prof Marietta Iacucci is a leading researcher in AI and a pioneer in ‘Endo-Histo-Barrier -Omics’, which fuses endoscopic and histologic information with ‘multi-omics data' in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
Prof Iacucci qualified in medicine at the University of Rome and obtained her PhD in 2009. She trained and conducted research in Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan, and previously held permanent faculty positions at the University of Calgary, Canada, and the University of Birmingham, UK. She was a key investigator at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in Birmingham. She led transdisciplinary work that predicted disease courses and outcomes in colonic neoplasia and inflammatory bowel disease, bridging engineering, bioinformatics, and imaging/omics.
She has been nominated for leadership positions in multiple international organisations. She is a fellow of the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. American Gastroenterological Association Fellow, a member of the e-Learning Taskforce and research officer of Governing Board of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO), member of the International Inflammatory Bowel Disease Organisation (IOIBD), member of the Global Interventional Inflammatory Bowel Disease Group, sits on the ESGE advanced imaging in colorectal neoplasia guidelines committee and IBD quality improvement committee working group.
She has delivered key plenary talks at prestigious international conferences such as the American Gastroenterological Association/American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the International Organisation for the Study of IBD, the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation, and the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. Her goal is to drive transdisciplinary precision medicine research in IBD and colon cancer.
Mr. Carl Jacobs, MBE
Boost-Training
Carl brings over 20 years of experience in leadership development, commercial excellence and organisational performance.
He designs and delivers high-impact programmes for C-level leaders, managers and teams across Europe. His career includes more than a decade in the financial services sector, followed by senior Learning and Development roles and international consultancy work, with a strong focus on healthcare.
Carl is known for his energetic facilitation style and ability to quickly connect learning to real business challenges.
Dr. Konstantinos Katsanos,
Ms. Bep Keersmaekers, MSc Clin. Psych
UZ Leuven
Bep Keersmaekers has a master in Clinical and Health Psychology and is following a postgraduate degree in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy at KU Leuven, Belgium. In 2021 she joined the IBD team. With great dedication and commitment, she is responsible for the support of patients with IBD-related psychological complaints. She is mainly available for outpatient consultations, but she also sees patients at their bedside in case of hospitalization.
Together with the patient, she tries to identify the psychological difficulties and how to cope with them in the best possible way.
In addition, Bep conducts research into the psychological factors in IBD and bases her treatments on the most recent scientific research in IBD psychology.
Prof. Debbie Laukens,
UZ Gent
Prof. Dr. Claire Liefferinckx, M.D., PhD
Hôpital Erasme
Claire Liefferinckx obtained her medical degree in 2014 and completed her PhD in 2019 at the Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. During her postdoctoral fellowship at GIGA (Liège), she worked with Michel Georges’ team, developing expertise in human genomics, transcriptomics, and eQTL analysis. Since 2023, she is half-time FNRS researcher, and half-time clinician in gastroenterology at Erasme hospital (Brussels). She is currently member of the SciCom within the BIRD group. Her research focuses on the pharmacokinetics of IBD biologics, IBD genetics and gut microbiota. Together with Prof. Franchimont, she developed a laboratory dedicated to the study of gut microbiota. Since 2024, she has also been a Professor of Gastroenterology at UMons.
Prof. Dr. Triana Lobatón, M.D., PhD
UZ Gent
Prof. Dr. Dieter Mesotten, M.D., PhD
ZOL
Dr. Mesotten is the head of anaesthesiology department, director of the anaesthesia training programme and chairman of the Clinical Trial Unit at ZOL-Genk. As associate professor at UHasselt he lectures clinical trial design and Good Clinical Practice. He worked from 2008 to 2015 as a senior staff member in the Dept Intensive Care Medicine of the University Hospitals Leuven, while doing research as assistent professor at KU Leuven and senior clinical investigator of the Research Foundation-Flanders (FWO). He obtained his PhD under supervision of Prof Greet Van den Berghe at the KU Leuven in 2003. After obtaining his Medical degree at the KU Leuven in 1999, he was a doctoral researcher at the Kolling Institute of Medical Research Kolling Institute of the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney from 1999 to 2002. He is a co-author of more than 100 publications.
Prof. Dr. Laurent Peyrin-Biroulet, M.D., PhD
McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Laurent Peyrin-Biroulet is a gastroenterologist and an internationally recognized expert in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). He is the top-rated expert in Crohn’s disease in the world according to “Expertscape”. His current H index is 118 with more than 1,200 publications indexed in PubMed. Moreover, since the age of 45, he is ranked by Clarivate among the “highly cited researchers” worldwide. Two bibliometric analyses ranked Laurent Peyrin-Biroulet No. 1 in the top 14 authors of relevant literature of IBD diagnosis in nearly 10 years (Liu C, et al. Front Immunol. 2022 - PMID: 36189197) and No. 1 in the top 10 most productive authors in Crohn’s disease treatment research between 2004 and 2023 (Xu L, et al. Front Pharmacol. 2024 - PMID: 39439890). Between 2020 and 2023, he was the President of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organization (ECCO) and Scientific Secretary of the International Organization for the Study of IBD (IOIBD), the two leading international organizations in IBD. Between 2015 and 2023, he was the President of the Groupe d'Etude Thérapeutique des Affections Inflammatoires du Tube Digestif (GETAID). In 2023, he was appointed adjunct professor at McGill University Health Centre (Canada). He is the President of the ICARE project, a European prospective cohort that has enrolled 10,000 IBD patients between 2016 and 2019 and that is assessing for the first time the real risk-benefit profile of current therapeutic strategies. He has initiated and has been responsible for numerous international projects (Selecting Therapeutic Targets in IBD (STRIDE) initiative, defining early Crohn’s disease, etc.) and has developed several indexes such as the IOIBD disease severity index, the World Health Organization disability index for IBD and the Nancy histological index.
Prof. Dr. Catherine Reenaers, M.D., PhD
CHU de Liège
Professor Catherine Reenaers is a senior gastroenterologist at the University hospital of Liege, Belgium. She completed her specialist training in the University hospital of Liège and was a research assistant and research fellow of the Belgian fund of research (FNRS) from 2004 to 2011. She obtained her PhD in 2008. After her PhD, Professor Reenaers was a Senior Clinical and Research Fellow of Dr Travis at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. She returned to Liège to take a permanent position as IBD specialist where she works with Professor Edouard Louis. She is full professor and has a charge of course at the University of Liège. She is part of several scientific associations including the head of the scientific committee of BIRD (Belgian Intestinal Research and Development group), the scientific committee of the GETAID (Groupe d'Etude Thérapeutique des Affections Inflammatoires du Tube Digestif) and the French association of ultrasound (AFUMI). She was trained for intestinal ultrasound in San Rafaelle Hospital, Milano, Italy with Prof Mariangella Allocca and obtained her IBUS certificate in 2024. She is a member of the Communication Commission of the IBUS since 2026.
Prof. Dr. João Sabino, M.D., PhD
UZ Leuven
Dr. Joan Somja,
CHU de Liège site Sart-Tilman
Ms. Elise Schoefs, MSc.
KU Leuven
Elise graduated in 2021 with a degree in Biomedical Sciences from the Catholic University of Leuven, specializing in Management and Communication. Later that year, she began a PhD in the research group of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences, further developing her interest in patient preferences, which was also the focus of her master’s thesis. Her research, conducted in close collaboration with the Leuven IBD research group, focuses on shared decision making and preference elicitation methods in the field of inflammatory bowel disease, with the aim of improving their implementation in clinical practice. Elise is expected to defend her PhD in August 2026.
Dr. Killian Troch, M.D.
CHU UCL Namur
Dr. Killian Troch is a young gastroenterologist who graduated from UCLouvain in 2024, where he trained under the supervision of Prof. Rahier and Prof. Dewit. He currently works at CHU UCL Namur across the Namur and Godinne sites. He contributed to the development of the IBD clinic in Namur while pursuing advanced training in Godinne in inflammatory bowel diseases with Prof. Rahier and in clinical nutrition with Dr. Druez. He plans to further develop his expertise through additional training abroad in the near future. Passionate about running, he is involved in the organization of innovative events to promote physical activity and raise awareness of IBD.
Prof. Dr. Sophie Vieujean, M.D., PhD
Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc