Dr. Ellina Lytvyak, MD, PhD, DABOM, FRCPC, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Department of Medicine at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

She completed her medical school in Ukraine and obtained her PhD Degree in Gastroenterology. She was awarded a Hubert Humphrey Fellowship, Fulbright Scholarship, by the United States Department of State, and completed it at Tulane University, New Orleans, USA. She also completed her Post-Doctoral Fellowship with the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta.

Dr. Ellina Lytvyak is certified in Obesity Medicine by the American Board of Obesity Medicine and in Public Health and Preventive Medicine by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. She is the Founder and Director of the Bariatric Medicine Clinic at the University of Alberta and provides comprehensive evidence-based tertiary care for a complex multimorbid population of patients at the forefront of the latest science.

Dr. Ellina Lytvyak has been actively involved in teaching activities for medical students, fellows and healthcare professionals and currently serves as an Evidence-Based Medicine lead with the MD Program at the University of Alberta.

Dr. Ellina Lytvyak is an author and co-author of over 270 peer-reviewed publications, including a book chapter and guidelines, with an h-index of 27, i10-index of 51, and g-index of 83. Her publications include high-impact scientific journals Hepatology, Journal of Hepatology, The Lancet Infectious Diseases, JACC, The Lancet Global Health, and The Lancet.

Djillali Annane is a professor in medicine at University Versailles – University Paris Saclay. He is director of General ICU at Raymond Poincaré Hospital, director of IHU PROMETHEUS, and Honorary Dean of Medical School Simone Veil. He has contributed to international and multi-disciplinary guidelines, to about 700 peer–reviewed articles and about 170 book chapters. He is the Chair of the Health Ministry Task Force against Sepsis, member of the board of governors of the American Hospital of Paris,, member of several WHO Working Groups, and past was Chief Counsellor of the French Minister of Health, and President of the French Society of Intensive Care Medicine.

Richard CESKA MD, PhD, FACP, FEFIM

Richard Ceska, Professor of Internal Medicine (Faculty of Medicine, Charles University), Head of the Center of Preventive Cardiology at the University General Hospital in Prague, Vice-director of department of Internal Medicine – Endocrinology and Metabolism. He holds the position of the President of the Czech Society of Internal Medicine, and as a founder of the Czech Society for Atherosclerosis he is a honorary president of this society. Prof. Ceska is a Member of Executive Committee of the International Society of Internal Medicine (ISIM) and a President Elect of ISIM. He established a ScreenPro FH Project in 2014. The ScreenPro FH project is an international project for improvement of the screening, diagnosis and treatment of familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe (CESE). From 2016 to 2021 he was a Secretary of the International Atherosclerosis Society (IAS).
Main scientific interests: Internal medicine, Preventive cardiology, Clinical lipidology and Metabolism. First author of 9 monograph, over 200 scientific publications. H-index 29.
He regularly participates as a speaker at scientific congresses and conferences, in addition he was a president of the EAS Congress 2005, Prague (3 000 participants), president of the European Congress of Internal Medicine (EFIM) 2013, Prague (1 500 participants), president of the Prague European Days of Internal Medicine (PEDIM) 2014, 2016, 2018, Prague and president of the 37th World Congress of Internal Medicine (WCIM) 2024, Prague (3 000 participants).

Dr. Delgado Lista is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine and Nursing of the University of Córdoba, Spain, where he also serves as Vice Dean for Hospital Affairs. He holds a joint appointment as a specialist physician in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Reina Sofía University Hospital of Córdoba, and is Co-Principal Investigator of the research group GC-09 at the Maimonides Institute for Biomedical Research. Among his leadership positions, he is the current National Coordinator of the Nutrition and Lifestyle Group of the Spanish Society of Arteriosclerosis.

With regard to his scientific output, he has participated in more than 50 Phase II–IV Clinical Trials, serving as Principal Investigator in 18 of them. He has currently published over 200 ISI-JCR indexed papers, 7 of which are “Highly Cited in Field” and 3 with more than 200 citations. His H-index is 37, with an average of more than 20 citations per article, and he has been cited over 5,000 times. He has been Principal Investigator of several National and International (European Union) Projects.

Dr. Delgado has also been the Clinical Coordinator of the Cordioprev Study, whose main article was published in The Lancet, on the impact of cardioprotective diets on the recurrence of cardiovascular disease. One of the main research lines of Dr. Delgado Lista focuses on the influence of diet on chronic diseases (with special emphasis on cardiovascular disease, obesity, and Diabetes Mellitus).

Alina Dima MD, MSc, PhD, FEFIM

Alina Dima is a clinician with dual specialization in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology. She currently works at Colentina Clinical Hospital, Bucharest, Romania, and serves as a Faculty Member (Visiting Professor) at Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania.

During her residency in Internal Medicine, she trained at the Clinical Immunology and Rare Diseases Center of Nouvel Hospital, Strasbourg, France. She holds a Master’s degree in Medical Biology and completed her PhD in 2017, focusing on biomarkers for systemic lupus erythematosus. Her doctoral research also included a short research period in Aarhus, Denmark, exploring osteonecrosis in lupus patients.

Alina Dima attended the EULAR Capillaroscopy Course in Genoa, Italy, in 2016. She later completed the EULAR Musculoskeletal Ultrasound (MSUS) Advanced Course in Milan, Italy, in 2023, achieving Level 1 of the EULAR Competency Assessment. She was awarded a EULAR scholarship for the IX EULAR Scientifically Endorsed Course on SLE in Pisa, Italy, in 2019, and a SLEuro scholarship for the SLEuro Advanced Workshop on SLE in Coimbra, Portugal, in 2022. In 2020, she also received a EULAR scholarship as an academic guest at the University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland, where her research focused on systemic sclerosis.

Since 2022, she has been a Fellow of the European Federation of Internal Medicine (EFIM), and since 2024, a member of the EFIM Early Career Group Subcommittee.

Prof Carmen Fierbinteanu-Braticevici received her medical degree from the “Carol Davila” University of Medicine, Bucharest, Romania, before pursuing a specialization in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology. She joined its faculty in 1988 as a Clinical Instructor and was later promoted to the posts as Assistant Professor, Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Professor in Gastroenterology and Internal Medicine at “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy. She also serves as a Division Chief in the Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology Department at the University Hospital Bucharest. Prof Fierbinteanu holds board certifications in internal medicine, gastroenterology, diagnostic and interventional abdominal ultrasonography. She has served as the Vice-president of The Romanian Society of Internal Medicine and as a member of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) and the American Gastroenterological Association Fellow (AGAF) consistently demonstrating a commitment to the advancement of medical science and education. Her research in the areas of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology has resulted in continued publication throughout her academic career in a number of prestigious journals. Prof. Fierbinteanu authored and coauthored more than 80 indexed papers and she is a speaker and chairman in national and international meetings.

Department of Medicine and Research Laboratory of Internal Medicine, National Expertise Center of Greece in Autoimmune Liver Diseases. European Reference Network on Hepatological Diseases (ERN-Rare Liver), General University Hospital of Larissa, Larissa, Greece

Nikolaos K. Gatselis serves as Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Thessaly and practices Medicine at the Department of Medicine and Research Laboratory of Internal Medicine, National Expertise Center of Greece in Autoimmune Liver Diseases, Full Member of the European Reference Network on Hepatological Diseases (ERN RARE-LIVER) at the General University Hospital of Larissa, Larissa, Greece. He was MD in 2001 and PhD in 2006 from Larissa Medical School, University of Thessaly and trained Internal Medicine between 2004-2008 at the Department of Medicine and Research Laboratory of Internal Medicine, University of Thessaly. Between 2010-2011, he worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in “French National Reference Center for Viral Hepatitis B, C and delta” & “Research Team – Pathophysiology and Therapy of Chronic Viral Hepatitis”, Hospital Henri Mondor, University Paris Est, INSERM U955.
His research interest focuses on hepatology and in particular on autoimmune liver diseases, chronic viral hepatitis, infectious diseases. He participates in several international and national clinical studies. He acted as an invited speaker in 155 international and national congresses. He also participated with 312 oral or poster presentations in international and national congresses. He has been awarded with 32 distinctions so far, including scholarships, fellowships. Nikolaos K. Gatselis has co-authored in 155 articles in peer reviewed journals with more than 8000 citations (h-index = 46 google scholar; 41 in Scopus). He has acted as reviewer in 78, member of the editorial board in 14 and academic editor in 2 international journals.

Sara P. Georgiadou serves as Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Thessaly and practices at the Department of Medicine and Research Laboratory of Internal Medicine, National Expertise Center of Greece in Autoimmune Liver Diseases, Full Member of the European Reference Network on Hepatological Diseases (ERN RARE-LIVER), at the General University Hospital of Larissa, Greece. She received her MD in 2001 and her PhD in 2007 from the University of Thessaly. She trained in Internal Medicine at the University Hospital of Larissa (2004–2009) and specialized in Infectious Diseases (2009–2011) at Laiko General Hospital, University of Athens. From 2011 to 2012, she pursued post-doctoral training in infections in immunocompromised patients at MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, USA. Her research interests include infectious diseases, HIV medicine, antimicrobial stewardship, and infections in immunocompromised hosts. She has co-authored 53 publications in peer-reviewed journals and has actively participated with oral and poster presentations in numerous national and international medical conferences, also serving as invited speaker in several scientific meetings.

He is Professor of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and director of the MSc program of Infectious Diseases at the University of Athens. His main research contribution is immunomodulation in sepsis and in auto-inflammatory disorders. He has 571 publications in international peer-reviewed journals with more than 42,000 citations and h-index 94. He has contributed in the development of clarithromycin for immunomodulatory treatment of severe infections and in the recognition of hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) as an auto-inflammatory disorder and in the licensing of adalimumab for HS treatment. He is the current chairman of the European Sepsis Alliance and the current President of the Hellenic Society of Chemotherapy. His main achievement is the approval of anakinra for COVID-19 pneumonia in adults by the European Medicines Agency and the Food and Drug Administration through the phase 2 and 3 trials SAVE and SAVE-MORE that he designed and conducted.

Maria Carlota Londoño is Consultant Hepatologist  of  the Liver Unit at Hospital Clínic of Barcelona. She is the reference person for the diagnosis and monitoring of patients with autoimmune liver diseases. She completed a postdoctoral stay at King’s College London under the supervision of Dr. Alberto Sánchez Fueyo, where she worked on the study of regulatory T cell homeostasis in liver diseases. Since her return, Dr. Londoño has initiated a line of translational research in which the immunological and transcriptomic profile of patients with autoimmune and cholestatic liver diseases. She has also designed several collaborative clinical projects within the International Autoimmune Hepatitis Group (IAIHG), the European Network for Rare Diseases (ERN-LIVER), and the ColHai registry. 

Dr. Anna López Ferrer is a Consultant Dermatologist at the Dermatology Department of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona, has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Barcelona and is an Associate Professor at the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona. She is currently on the Board of Directors of the Spanish Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (AEDV) and is the current coordinator of the Spanish Psoriasis Group of the AEDV.

She works in the Psoriasis Unit of the Department of Dermatology and since June 2012 she has created a joint clinic with the Department of Rheumatology to work with patients with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. Her main focus is the early diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis in patients with psoriasis and the optimization of their treatment. 

Dr. López Ferrer is a member of the Spanish Society of Dermatology (AEDV), the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV), member of the Educational Committee of the Group for Research of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA), Councilor of the International Psoriasis Council (IPC) and National Coordinator of the Global Psoriasis Atlas. She is author or co-author of several scientific articles and has participated in several national and international clinical trials in psoriasis.

Knut E A Lundin is Professor of Medicine and Head of Clinical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Norway and senior consultant gastroenterologist at the endoscopy unit at Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet. He works with Professor Ludvig M Sollid on the immunobiology and clinical aspects of coeliac disease (CeD). His seminal paper in Journal of Experimental Medicine in 1993 on gluten specific T cells from the small intestine has led to in-detail dissection of the immunopathogenesis of the disease. Focus has also been paid to non-coeliac gluten sensitivity, “regular” and “complicated” CeD, refractory CeD, inflammatory bowel disease, clinical nutrition and other GI disorders in a tertiary referral hospital setting. He has training in all aspects of diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy. 

He initiated the International Society for the Study of Celiac Disease in 2011 and the European Society for Study of Coeliac Disease in 2015. He was senior author of the recent guidelines from the European Society for Study of Coeliac Disease published in UEG Journal in 2019 and downloaded more than 100.000 times. He has published more than 200 papers as original papers, reviews and book chapters and has been cited in > 26.000 other publications, his h-index is 77 and the i10-index 206.

Julia Mader is Full Professor of Diabetes Technology at Medical University of Graz and Deputy Head of the Diabetes Outpatient Clinic. She graduated at Medical University of Graz where she also trained in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology. She was Visiting Professor at the University Hospital of Bern, Switzerland (2016-2017). She leads the Diabetes Technology Research Unit at Medical University of Graz.

Her research focuses on diabetes technology (insulin pumps, continuous glucose monitoring, automated insulin delivery system, diabetes management in the hospital and decision support systems). She has published over 190 peer-reviewed scientific papers. She has received several national and international awards. She is board member of the Austrian Diabetes Society, executive board member of the EASD and chairs EASD’s Training and Education Committee.

Dr. Guillermo Maestro is a specialist physician at the 12 de Octubre University Hospital in Madrid, where he practices Internal Medicine with a primary focus on inpatient consultation services. He also serves as the coordinator of the hospital’s Antimicrobial Stewardship Program, promoting responsible antibiotic use and optimizing infectious disease management. Dr. Maestro holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid and has extensive expertise in infectious diseases, with a strong commitment to clinical excellence and multidisciplinary collaboration.

Professor François Maillot, MD, PhD
François Maillot is a Professor of internal medicine at the University of Tours, France. He is the head of the department of internal medicine which is part of a reference centre for inborn errors of metabolism (IEM) at the university hospital of Tours. He is a PI in the research unit INSERM 1253 « IbraiN » , university of Tours. 
Professor Maillot is involved in the treatment of adult patients with IEM,. He has a significative number of publications in this field and have research collaborations worldwide. Professor Maillot is a member of the French society of internal medicine (SNFMI), the French national society for the study of IEM (SFEIM) and the Society for the Study of IEM (SSIEM).

Pablo Pérez Martínez, MD, PhD, is Full Professor of Medicine at the University of Cordoba (UCO) and holds a joint appointment as specialist in Internal Medicine at the Reina Sofía University Hospital (HURS) in Córdoba, Spain. He currently holds the position of Scientific Director of the Maimonides Institute for Biomedical Research of Córdoba (IMIBIC). His professional activities integrate clinical practice in Internal Medicine, academic teaching, and translational research.

He is Co-Principal Investigator of the IMIBIC research group GC-09 “Nutrigenomics and Metabolic Syndrome”. In addition, he serves as Second Vice President and Research Coordinator of the Spanish Society of Internal Medicine (SEMI).

Eva Katharina Masel is Head of the Department of Palliative Medicine at the General Hospital of the Medical University of Vienna, Professor of Palliative Medicine, and Deputy Medical Director. She is a specialist in internal medicine and holds a Master’s degree in Palliative Medicine and a PhD in Mental Health and Behavioural Science.

As a laboratory specialist, hematologist, and epidemiologist, Michael Nagler has a wide range of training and expertise. Currently, he is the deputy director of the Center for Laboratory Medicine at Inselspital University Hospital and an associate professor at the University of Bern. As part of his research, he is advancing diagnostic research methodologies, validating, and implementing new testing strategies, and developing creative decision support tools, specifically diagnostic machine learning algorithms.

George Ntaios serves as Professor of Internal Medicine at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and performs full clinical duties at the 1st PropaedeuticDepartment of Internal Medicine at the University General Hospital of Thessaloniki “AHEPA” in Greece. 

After obtaining his Master and PhD degrees at the Aristotles University of Thessaloniki, he was stroke-trained during a stroke fellowship at the CHUV in Lausanne and during the European Master in Stroke Medicine in Danube University in Austria.

He serves as the President of the Hellenic Stroke Organization since 2021, after a six-year term as its Secretary General. He was the leading Editor of the Stroke Textbook of the Hellenic Stroke Organization.

He served as the Treasurer of the Stroke Council of the European Society of Cardiology between 2022-2024. He served on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the European Stroke Organization (2017-2020), and as the Chair of the Guidelines Committee of the European Stroke Organization (2014-2018).

He co-authored several Guideline documents and statements published by various scientific bodies like the European Society of Cardiology Council on Stroke, the European Heart Rhythm Association, the American College of Chest Physicians, the European Stroke Organization, the Hellenic Stroke Organization, the Hellenic Society of Cardiology, and the Hellenic Atherosclerosis Society. 

His main research interest focuses on ischemic stroke etiology, prevention and prognosis. He has published more than 330 articles in a broad range of journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, European Heart Journal, Circulation, Journal of Am

Josef Penninger was born on 5 September 1964 in Gurten, Oberösterreich. After attending medical school in Innsbruck, he started his scientific career at the University of Toronto, Canada. In 2002, he was the founding director of the Institute for Molecular Biotechnology IMBA – a research institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, Austria. In 2018, he returned to Canada as a Canada 150 Chair and took over the Life Sciences Institute at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Starting from 1 July 2023, he has been appointed as Scientific Director of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig, Germany. At the same time, he was appointed Professor for Precision Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna.

Since 1995 Josef Penninger has been receiving multiple competitive research grants in the EU and North America, among those a Canada 150 Research Chair in Functional Genetics, an Innovator Award from the US, an EU Excellence Grant, as well as two ERC Advanced Grants.

Josef Penninger has earned a long list of awards and honorary awards. Among those are the Ernst-Jung-Price for Medicine, the Descartes-Price (highest European award) and the Wittgenstein-Price, also referred to as the “Austrian Nobel Price”. In 2015 he placed 11th in the ranking of the most influential thought leaders in German-speaking countries. Additionally, he was among the Top 10 of the most cited scientists worldwide twice, has been given an Honorary Professor title of the Chinese University of Qingdao as well as the Technical University Braunschweig and is a recipient of the Austrian Cross of Merit. He is regularly distinguished for his publications and citation rates, e.g. as Highly-cited Researcher by Clarivate, Top-Cited Scholar by Scilit and most-cited developmental biologist in the German-speaking countries, and he was among the Top 10 of the most cited scientists worldwide twic

Eirini I. Rigopoulou serves as Professor of Medicine at the University of Thessaly and practices Medicine at the Department of Medicine and Research Laboratory of Internal Medicine, National Expertise Center of Greece in Autoimmune Liver Diseases, Full Member of the European Reference Network on Hepatological Diseases (ERN RARE-LIVER) at the General University Hospital of Larissa, Larissa, Greece.

She graduated from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens where she also completed her PhD. She was trained in Internal Medicine (Athens) and later in Hepatology at the University of Cambridge and University College London (Institute of Hepatology) in the UK (1998-2001).

Her research interests and key publications focus on chronic viral hepatitis and autoimmune liver diseases. She has co-authored 140 publications in peer reviewed journals and chapters in books with >4500 citations (scopus h-index: 40) and has been editor and reviewer for international scientific journals and reviewer for grant agencies. Currently she is a member of the Governing board of the Hellenic Association for the Study of the Liver.

Thomas Scherer completed his medical degree at the Medical University of Vienna in 2007. After a research fellowship at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York and a doctorate at the University of Lübeck, he completed his habilitation at MedUni Vienna in 2017, where he took over as deputy head of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the Department of Medicine III in 2020. In addition to his clinical and scientific work, he is a member of numerous professional societies and currently serves as president of the Austrian Society for Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Prof Gamal Shiha is a Prof of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, Egypt and Founder, Egyptian Liver Research Institute and Hospital (ELRIAH). Since 2006, he has been a founding member of the National Committee for HCV Elimination in Egypt. 
He developed a comprehensive community-led outreach programme for prevention, testing, and treatment of HCV infection in Egypt with the goal to eliminate HCV infection from all adults and as a model for potential adoption in rural settings. This ambitious initiative was successfully implemented across 100 Egyptian villages, signifying a remarkable step towards eradicating HCV.

Prof. Shiha was a member of the executive committee of the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (APASL) from 2006 to 2010 and served as the head of the Education and Scientific Research Committee in the Egyptian Parliament from 2016 to 2020, where he continued to shape healthcare policy and promote scientific inquiry. 
Prof. Shiha received the prestigious “Great Mentor Award” from the APASL in 2019, a testament to his role as a guiding light for future generations of medical professionals. He was honored with the State Appreciation Award for Medical Sciences in 2021, a testament to his contributions to the medical field. In 2021, Prof. Shiha was also celebrated as the “Hepatitis Elimination Champion” by the Coalition for Global Hepatitis Elimination, underscoring his relentless pursuit of a world free from the burden of hepatitis.
Professor Shiha is also a founding member and Board member of the European Liver Patients Association (ELPA), as well as being a member of the Board of the World Hepatitis Alliance (WHA)

Prof of Intensive Care Medicine; Co-lead, International Sepsis Definitions (Sepsis-3) Task Force, Sepsis Topic Advisor for NICE; author/editor of multiple textbooks e.g. Oxford Handbook of Critical Care

As a PhD candidate, I have spent the past few years conducting research focused on data science in the intensive care unit at Erasmus MC, with a particular interest in predicting hetergeneous treatment effects (causal inference).

During this time, I had the opportunity to work on large projects concerning the heterogeneity of treatment effects (HTE), including studies on corticosteroids for pneumonia (presenting at this ECIM edition) and PEEP strategies in the ICU.

Currently, I am working as a post-doctoral researcher at Radboud University, on an HTE project on dementia prevention. I want to continue my research career with HTE as my main focus.

– training in internal medicine & endocrinology/metabolism in Austria (Medical University of Vienna) and France (Le Kremlin Bicêtre)
– since 2020 consultant with a focus on clinical research in pituitary & adrenal diseases