Dr. Baffy received his MD from the University of Debrecen. He trained in gastroenterology at the University of Michigan and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is currently chief of gastroenterology at the VA Boston Healthcare System and associate professor at Harvard Medical School. His research focuses on metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), including early portal hypertension and liver mechanobiology. He is involved in several multicenter studies addressing palliative care in end-stage liver disease, use of simvastatin in near-decompensated cirrhosis, and HCC surveillance. He published over 120 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. He has been a member of various scientific review panels and journal editorial boards in the field. He was a Fulbright US Scholar in 2014. He is the recipient of the Madaus Prize from the Madaus Liver Foundation and the Hetényi Medal and Pro Optimo Merito in Gastroenterologia Award from the Hungarian Gastroenterological Association.

Prof Sonia M. Najjar received her PhD degree from Stanford University Medical School studying the effect of diabetes on glucose absorption in enterocytes. As a post-doctoral fellow at the NIH where, she identified CEACAM1, a plasma membrane glycoprotein in the liver, as a substrate of the insulin receptor kinase on the sinusoidal domain. She has continued to focus on the role of CEACAM1 in insulin clearance and lipid metabolism since she began her independent career at the University of Toledo in 1994. She is best known for identifying a causative role for impaired insulin clearance in insulin resistance. She has also pioneered the finding that acutely insulin suppresses de novo lipogenesis in hepatocytes via phosphorylating CEACAM1. She has continued her research investigating the role of CEACAM1 in the pathogenesis of hepatic fibrosis. Prof Najjar has reached an international acclaim in metabolism and has published several high- impact papers in the field.