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Professor of Medicine in the Division of Digestive and Liver Diseases at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Chief of Hepatology and Medical Director of the Liver Tumor Program.

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Dr. Signal has obtained NIH funding examining the hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) care continuum, ranging from HCC prevention to screening and early detection to treatment and survivorship. He has over 200 peer-reviewed original publications and has been awarded the Willis C Maddrey Distinguished Chair in Liver Disease, Dedman Family Scholar in Clinical Care, and Blue Faery Award for Excellence in Liver Cancer Research.

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Principal Investigator in Translational Immunology Institute (TII) and an assistant professor in Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore.

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Dr. Valerie Chew graduated from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore and is currently a principal investigator in Translational Immunology Institute (TII) and an assistant professor in Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore.

Dr Chew’s research focuses primarily on understanding the complexity and diversity of the immune context of the tumor microenvironment and its influence on clinical outcome or response to therapy in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Her current work involves high- and multi-dimensional immunophenotyping and immunomonitoring of HCC microenvironment with cutting edge multiplex and single-cell technologies such as Time of Flight Mass Cytometry (CyTOF), single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA seq) and spatial omics analysis. This powerful approach allows holistic profiling of immune landscapes and the identification of clinically relevant immune subsets or biomarkers predictive of tumour progression and response to therapy.

Her work has gained recognition with multiple grant awards and several high impact publications.

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Assistant Dean (Core Platforms and Advancement) of the LKS Faculty of Medicine, Professor and Principal Investigator in the Department of Pathology and the State Key Laboratory of Liver Research at HKU

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Dr. Wong obtained her PhD degree in HKU and completed her post-doctoral training at Johns Hopkins University. She is the recipient of the NSFC Distinguished Young Scholars Fund, NSFC Excellent Young Scientists Fund (Hong Kong and Macau), RGC Research Fellowship, Croucher Innovation Award, Hong Kong Young Scientist Award, the Rosie Young 90 Medal for Outstanding Young Woman Scholar, HKU Outstanding Young Researcher Award (OYRA), HKU Outstanding Research Student Supervisor Award (ORSSA), and Li Ka Shing Prize. Her research team is devoted to unraveling the complex mechanisms that drive metabolic reprogramming and immune evasion in liver cancer. Her team employs precision mouse models to gain a deeper understanding of personalized medicine for liver cancer, revealing how driver gene mutations of individual patients affect the immune characteristics and responses for immunotherapies. Her work has paved the way for precision medicine for liver cancer. Her team has also validated new immune checkpoints for liver cancer, providing the mechanistic rationales for new combination treatments in clinical trials. Her work was published in Gastroenterology, Gut, Journal of Hepatology, Hepatology, Nature Communications, Journal of Clinical Investigation, PNAS, Science Advances. She is the ESI top 1% most cited scholar in 2023-2025. She is an elected member of the Hong Kong Young Academy of Science. She currently serves as the co-editor-in-chief of Hepatology Communications (AASLD) and the editorial board member of Hepatology (AASLD) and CMGH. She is also the council member of the governing board of the International Liver Cancer Association (ILCA).

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Hepatologist and researcher , Department of Internal Medicine and the Liver Research Institute, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Republic of Korea

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Hepatologist and researcher , Department of Internal Medicine and the Liver Research Institute, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Republic of Korea

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Professor from Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, and director of Division of Interventional Ultrasound, Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, China 

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Professor from Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, and director of Division of Interventional Ultrasound, Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, China 

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Professor and Chairman, · Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Kindai University, Japan

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Professor and Chairman, · Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Kindai University, Japan

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Professor, Institute of Radiation Medicine, Radiology, Republic of Korea

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Professor, Institute of Radiation Medicine, Radiology, Republic of Korea

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Head of the Hepatic Oncology Unit – BCLC Group, Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, Spain

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Dr. Maria Reig is a physician-scientist internationally recognized for her expertise in liver diseases and liver cancer. She currently holds several positions, including Head of the Hepatic Oncology Unit at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona since 2019, Head of the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) group at IDIBAPS, and Head of the Liver Oncology Group at CIBEREHD since 2022. Dr. Reig plays a pivotal role in leading the BCLC generational relief, driving research and treatment advancements for liver cancer patients. Her visionary approach is evident in the incorporation of the “Clinical Decision-making concept” into the 2022 BCLC Staging System, a widely recommended classification globally (PMID: 34801630). This innovative concept has also been adopted by the 2023 AASLD guidance (PMID: 37199193), further solidifying its impact in the field.
H-index: 41; Research articles 153 (IF: 2.279; Cites 13.775). Since 2018: Manuscripts: 79; IF:1.412; 29 as a main author; 37 D1; 44 Q1, 12 Q2. Total funding ~ 10.5M€ in the context of competitive projects and investigator-initiated clinical trials.
She has demonstrated exceptional leadership by spearheading inclusive and collaborative projects. Over the past 5 years, she has led 12 international and national academic collaborations involving more than 4,020 liver cancer patients from all continents and over 70 centers. Her initiatives promote multidisciplinarity and foster shared leadership. Also, she participates in 2 projects funded by Horizon 2020 (n.952103 and EU4H-2021-JA-04). These collaborations have resulted in publications in renowned international journals, several of which have played a pivotal role in influencing clinical practice (PMIDs : 34856322; 34388851; 33741640; 33383399; 32170821; 30684506; 28898447; 27084592).
Her training in Immunooncology (U. Navarra), Statistics (UAB), along with her profound clinical knowledge of patients with liver diseases, liver cancer and their unmet clinical needs, have led her to design and lead two investigator-initiated multicenter clinical trials in Spain (NCT04170556 and NCT04316182). These trials emphasize the integration of translational research into academic clinical trials, allowing for a comprehensive understanding of liver cancer and enabling personalized treatment approaches. Dr. Reig’s influence extends beyond research and clinical expertise. She is Chair of the International Working Group for the Liver Cancers Council at Global Liver Institute (GLI), a non-profit patient organization. She has actively contributed to the advancement of liver cancer care through her active involvement in various scientific associations (ILCA, EASL, AEEH, ALEH, ESMO) ensuring that the patient’s voice is heard; the advancements translate into tangible benefits for patients and integrated into medical decision-making processes. She led the Spanish consensus of AEEH, AEC, SEOM, SERAM, SERVEI, and SETH involved in the HCC management. She is the EASL representative of the 2023 ILCA-EASL Cholangiocarcinoma guideline and the EASL Hepatocellular Carcinoma guideline update, and was part of the board of the three-liver cancer register led by AEEH (PMIDs: 28279536; 20036398).
Currently, she is the EASL representative at UEG, part of the AEEH Scientific Committee as well as of the Working group of rare liver tumor at ERN-rareLiver. She is Associate Editor in Journal of Hepatology (IF 30.083). She is Associate Professor at the University of Barcelona promoting young investigators, through hybrid stating. She is mentor of 15 MD and PhD students, fellows and residents. She is also PhD Thesis Director of 7 young doctors, and Master Thesis Director of 4 people since 2015.

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Clinical Research Fellow, Imperial College London

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Doctor of Medecine, La Pitié Salpétrière Hospital, Paris, France

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Dr Manon Allaire is Doctor of Medecine in La Pitié Salpétrière Hospital in Paris, headed by Pr Thabut. She focuses on teaching and research in hepatocellular carcinoma with focus in portal hypertension and systemic therapy. Dr Allaire obtained her medical degree in Hepatology and Gastroenterology in 2015 and her complementary medical degree in Medical Oncology in 2015. She is responsible of the Department of primary liver tumor in La Pitié Salpétrière Hospital, and of clinical and translational trials focus on primary liver tumor. Dr Allaire is also member of the Proliferation, Stress and Liver Physiopathology unit in the group of Dr C. Desdouets in the Centre de Recherche des Cordeliers in Paris. Her team aim to study new immune biomarkers to predict response to immunotherapy and the impact of portal hypertension on the management of hepatocellular carcinoma.