Fred Poordad, MD, is a professor of medicine at UT Health San Antonio, and vice president of Academic and Clinical Affairs at the Texas Liver Institute in San Antonio. He received his BS and MD at the University of Alberta in Edmonton and completed a residency in internal medicine at St. Thomas Medical Center and Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine. Dr. Poordad also completed a fellowship in gastroenterology at the University of South Carolina, and a fellowship in hepatology/liver transplantation at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He served as the co-director of liver transplantation at Johns Hopkins prior to becoming chief of hepatology and liver transplantation at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for 10 years. In 2012, Dr. Poordad joined the Texas Liver Institute and the faculty at UT Health in San Antonio. He teaches medical students, residents, and fellows and rotates on the liver transplant services at University Health System. Dr. Poordad also conducts a multitude of clinical research across all facets of liver disease, including viral hepatitis, fatty liver, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma.

A member of the American Medical Association, the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), the European Association for the Study of the Liver, the American Society of Transplantation (AST), and the Asian PacificAssociation for the Study of the Liver, Dr. Poordad lectures both nationally and internationally on liver disease and transplantation. He has authored over 300 publications, including numerous book
chapters, abstracts, and educational monographs, and publishes in such journals as Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Liver Transplantation, The New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of Hepatology, the American Journal of Transplantation, and The International Journal of Artificial Organs. He has been honored by US News & World Report as one of the top 1% of physicians in his field, and serves on many scientific advisory boards. . Poordad both currently serves and has served on educational committees for the AASLD, AST, and the American College of Gastroenterology. He is on the editorial board of several journals, and is a regular peer reviewer for multiple journals, as well as for the American Gastroenterological Association and AASLD annual meetings.

Robert S. Brown Jr., MD, MPH, is the vice chair of Transitions of Care and clinical chief of the division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, as well as a Gladys and Roland Harriman professor of medicine, at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.

Dr. Brown received his medical degree from New York University in 1996 and his master's in public health from the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. He also received postdoctoral training at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, along with a fellowship in gastroenterology and hepatology at the University of California in San Francisco.

His research focuses on the clinical and cost outcomes of liver disease, in particular viral hepatitis and liver transplantation, using randomized clinical trials, multivariate linear and logistic regression, survival analysis, and decision-tree and cost-effectiveness analyses. Several of his liver transplantation studies were funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, as well as the pharmaceutical industry, including several multicenter studies to investigate antiviral prophylaxis strategies and various immunosuppressive agents following liver transplantation.

Dr. Brown has authored more than 200 articles, book chapters, case reports, reviews, and editorials. These have been published recently in The American Journal of Surgical Pathology, the American Journal of Transplantation, Cancer Investigation, Clinical Transplantation, Hepatology, the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, the Journal of Hepatology, Liver International, Liver Transplantation, and Transplantation Proceedings.
He serves on the editorial board for major journals in his field, suchas Gastroenterology & Hepatology, GI & Hepatology News, Hepatitis: Index & Reviews, and Liver Transplantation.

Dr. Brown currently is a member of the American College of Physicians, the American Gastroenterological Association, the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, and the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. Other memberships include the American Society of Transplant Physicians, Medical Advisory Board, the Greater New York Chapter of the American Liver Foundation, the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, the American College of Gastroenterology, and the International Liver Transplantation Society.

In 1996, Dr. Brown received the Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Transplant Physicians. In 2009, he was honored with the Senior Attending Teaching Award from Columbia University Medical Center. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians (2000), the American College of Gastroenterology (2001), and the American Gastroenterological Association (2009).

Dr. Kowdley received his BS in biology and anthropology as a member of the Dean's List at Columbia University, and received his medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He completed his internship and residency at Oregon Health & Science University and a fellowship in gastroenterology and hepatology at Tufts University School of Medicine.

Dr. Kowdley is internationally recognized as a clinician, educator, and researcher in the area of liver disease, and has presented his research on liver diseases at more than 140 national and international meetings and scientific symposia. He is the author of over 400 articles, book chapters, reviews, andcommentaries in this area, and has been published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, Archives of Surgery, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, the American Journal of Physiology, The New England Journal of Medicine, and other professional publications.

Dr. Kowdley has extensive experience in clinical trials in all areas of liver disease, ranging from hepatitis C to cholestatic liver disease, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, and hepatitis B. He has been a principal investigator in several clinical trials in primary biliary cirrhosis and primary sclerosing cholangitis sponsored by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), and is a member of the executive committee of the Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Clinical Research Network (NASH CRN). Dr. Kowdley has also served as the lead investigator for several major international clinical trials in hepatitis C.

Dr. Kowdley's laboratory program is focused on the role of iron as a co-factor in many liver diseases, ranging from hepatitis C to hemochromatosis and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). He has developed murine models for NASH and is currently exploring the contribution of hepatic iron deposition to the severity of NASH.

Dr. Kowdley's research program has been continuously funded by the NIDDK since 1999, and has received several grants from foundations and scientific societies