Prof. Dr. Edouard Louis, M.D., PhD
CHU de Liège site Sart-Tilman
Edouard LOUIS was born in Belgium, on April 1st 1965. He obtained the title of Medical Doctor with Magna cum laude in June 1990, at the state university of Liège, Belgium. Part of his training in Gastroenterology, was done at the Oxford University, UK (1994-1995). He graduated in June 1996 as a specialist in Gastroenterology. Edouard LOUIS obtained his Ph.D. in 1996, as a fellow of the National Funds for Scientific Research of Belgium (FNRS), with a work on gastrointestinal immunization with soluble antigens. He obtained his “aggregation” for University teaching in 1999 with a work on the characterisation and genetics of immuno-inflammatory reaction in Crohn’s disease. Edouard LOUIS was promoted associate Professor of Gastroenterology at Liège University in October 2002 and Senior Research Associate at the National Funds for Scientific Research of Belgium (FNRS) in October 2005. He has been Professor of Gastroenterology and Head of the Gastroenterology department at Liège University hospital since October 2010. His Scientific work contributed to more than 300 papers in international journals (H-Index 2020=70). He has been General Secretary of the Belgian Society of Gastroenterology 2005-2009, President of the Belgian IBD Research group (2008-2011), member of the Scientific Committee of the ECCO (European Crohn and Colitis Organisation) (2010-2013) and Chair of this Scientific Committee (2013-2015). He has been member of the board of the GETAID (groupe d’étude thérapeutique des affections inflammatoires digestives) (2004-ongoing), president of the GETAID (2012-2015), Associate Editor of Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis (2018-ongoing).
Prof. Dr. Catherine Reenaers, M.D, PhD
CHU de Liège site Sart-Tilman
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. Her PhD studied the impact of osteoprotegerin on T cells/dendritic cells interaction and bone remodeling and the role of fibroblasts’ apoptosis on fibrosis in IBD. 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 associated professor and has a charge of course at the university of Liège. She is part of several scientific associations including the scientific committee of BIRD (Belgian Intestinal Research and Developpment group) and the educational committee of the GETAID (groupe d'Etude Thérapeutique des Affections Inflammatoires du Tube Digestif). She was the ECCO (European Crohn and Colitis Organisation) national representative from 2012 till 2020. Pr Reenaers has obtained several scientific awards in Belgian and European conferences and has given many lectures for different scientific societies including outside Belgium. She contributed to more than 65 papers in international reviews including 11 papers as first or last author.
Dr. Anneline Cremer, M.D, PhD
Hôpital Erasme
Anneline Cremer (1985) graduated in medicine from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB, Belgium) in 2010 with summa cum laude. She completed her training in Gastroenterology in 2017. Her strong interest for Gastroenterology and more specifically for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) has grown over the years. During her last year in medical school, she spent 6 months in the Laboratory of Experimental Gastroenterology (LGE), ULB, in Brussels working on a basic immunology project. She started her clinical training in 2010, and started her Gastroenterology training in October 2013 in the Department of Gastroenterology of Tivoli Hospital (La Louvière) for six months followed by one year and a half in the Department of Gastroenterology of ULB-Erasme Hospital. She received a doctoral research fellowship (October 2015-April 2020) from the Fonds Erasme (ULB) and she is still working on translational IBD research projects under supervision of Prof Denis Franchimont. She also participated as co- or principal investigator in clinical trials in the field of Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis since November 2015. She is currently working in the IBD clinic of the Department of Gastroenterology of ULB-Erasme Hospital.
Anneline is actively involved in several national scientific organizations. She is a Board member of BIRD (Belgian IBD Research and Development) and chairs Scicom. She is also a Board member of the SRBGE (Société Royale Belge de Gastroentérologie).
Prof. Dr. João Sabino, M.D, PhD
UZ Leuven Gasthuisberg
Prof. Dr. João Sabino is assistant professor at KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium) and staff member of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University Hospitals Leuven since 2019.
João Sabino graduated as MD at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. Part of his MD training was done at the University of Salamanca, Spain, under the Erasmus program. In 2010, he moved to Belgium for his gastroenterology fellowship, which included internships at the University Hospitals of Leuven, Hospital of Lier, and Hospital of Genk.
In December 2017, he successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled “Host-microbiome interactions in health and digestive diseases” at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Leuven. After his PhD, he did a short postdoctoral stay at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York.
João Sabino holds a basic-clinical research position at the Flemish Foundation for Scientific Research (FWO Vlaanderen). He is member of the Educational Committee and of the board of the Belgian IBD Research and Development (BIRD) group.
His main research interests are the role of dietary approach to treat intestinal inflammation, the role of dietary components in the development and resolution of intestinal inflammation, and the impact of undernutrition in the quality of life of patients with IBD.
Prof. Dr. Aranzazu Jauregi Amezaga, MD, PhD
UZ Antwerpen
Aranzazu Jauregui Amezaga MD PHD is gastroenterologist at UZ Antwerpen. She completed her PhD “Cell therapy for Crohn’s disease” in 2016. She has specific interest in intestinal ultrasound for IBD patients and is member of the IBUS group. Her research focusses on translational studies on IBD pathogenesis and monitoring of disease course and treatment response.
Prof. Dr. Laurent Peyrin-Biroulet, MD, PhD
CHRU Nancy
Laurent Peyrin-Biroulet is professor of medicine and head of the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) unit (Inserm U1256 NGERE) at the Nancy University Hospital in France. Upon receiving his medical degree and PhD, he undertook a postdoctoral fellowship at the IBD Centre in Lille in 2007, before taking a research position at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, USA (2008–2009).
Professor Peyrin-Biroulet received a rising star award in 2008 from the United European Gastroenterology Federation (UEGF). He is President of the GETAID and Past-President of the SciCom of the French association of IBD patients (AFA). He is past-Chair of the IBD Committee of the French Society of Digestive Endoscopy (SFED) and Past-Chair of the Clinical Trials Task Force at IOIBD. He was member of the UEGF Scientific Committee (2011-14). He is the current President of the European Crohn’s & Colitis Organization (ECCO) and current scientific secretary of IOIBD. He was the coordinator for the development of the first Disability Index for IBD and of the treat to target (STRIDE) recommendations. He proposed the first definitions of early Crohn’s disease and of disease severity for IBD. He is co-founder of the Spectrum consortium and President of the ICARE project. Author of more than 800 peer-reviewed articles and more than 200 non peer-reviewed articles, Professor Peyrin-Biroulet was an associate editor of Digestive Liver Diseases (2013-17), and is a member of the editorial board of Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics, Journal of Crohn’s and colitis, Expert Review of Clinical Immunology, and Gut. He is Associate Editor of Clinical Gastroenterology Hepatology since 2017. He also serves as a reviewer for several international journals and he is a staff contributor of the Selected Summary section of Gastroenterology. He joined the editorial team of the Cochrane Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and Functional Bowel Disorders (IBD/FBD) Review Group in 2014. He served as Councillor to the Immunology, Microbiology and IBD section of the AGA Institute Council (2014-2016).
Prof. Dr. Marc Ferrante, M.D., PhD
UZ Leuven Gasthuisberg
Prof. Dr. Marc Ferrante is full professor at KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium) and staff member of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University Hospitals Leuven since 2012. His main research topics include intestinal organoids, biological therapy, postoperative recurrence, endoscopy, and quality of care. Marc Ferrante published more than 260 papers in high ranked gastroenterology journals (H index: 55). For his work, he has received numerous research grants and he was awarded as Rising Star in Gastroenterology at the European Congress of Gastroenterology in 2014. Marc Ferrante holds a basic-clinical research position at the Flemish Foundation for Scientific Research (FWO Vlaanderen). He is member of the Scientific Committees of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO) and the Belgian IBD Research and Development (BIRD) group.
Dries Reynders, M.Sc.
UGent
Dries Reynders is a statistical consultant at Stat-Gent (Ghent University). While he works on a wide variety of projects, his focus is on health care related topics. Apart from clinic trials, these include the analysis of quality of care indicators for nursing homes and causal analysis of observational data on kidney transplants. His clinical trial experience ranges from Phase I dose finding studies to Phase II and III RCTs, encompassing design, protocol writing and reading, and analysis. In his work as a consultant and a teacher, adoption and instruction of good statistical practices play a central role.
Prof. Dr. Stefanos Bonovas, M.D., PhD
Humanitas University / IRCCS Humanitas Research Hospital
Stefanos Bonovas graduated from the School of Medicine, University of Athens, and completed a four-year medical residency in General Practice. He earned his M.Sc. in Biostatistics and Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the School of Medicine, University of Athens, Greece.
Currently, he serves as Associate Professor of Medical Statistics at Department of Biomedical Sciences, Humanitas University, Milan, Italy, and as a member of the Guidelines Committee of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organization (ECCO Advisor on Methodology).
His research work focuses in the following areas: clinical practice guidelines’ development, epidemiology of inflammatory bowel diseases, drug safety, and evidence synthesis (by means of systematic reviews, umbrella reviews, classic and network meta-analyses) to inform health care decisions.
His record includes over 240 peer-reviewed publications, and has received 10,000 citations in the literature, with Hirsch indices: h=43 (Scopus) and h=52 (Google Scholar) as of April 2022.