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International Liver Conference
1st September 2006.
Venue: Queen Mary & Westfield College, Mile End, London.

Papers
Possible Causes of Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis by Dr Roger Chapman (pdf)
Dr Chapman completed a SHO and a registrar rotation in Southampton. In 1977 he became a lecturer at the Royal Free Liver Unit. Whilst at the Royal Free he developed a lasting interest in liver disease in association with Inflammatory Bowel Disease, particularly Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) and other autoimmune hepatobiliary diseases. In 1986 Dr Chapman became a Consultant in Gastroenterology at the John Radcliffe Hospital, and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Oxford in 1989. He is a past secretary of BASL and a current member of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) Interventional Procedures Committee (IPAC). He has previously served as Associate Editor of Gut. He is medical advisor to the PSC patient support groups in the UK and USA. He has authored or co-authored four books, over forty book chapters and published over one hundred and ten original peer reviewed research articles in various aspects of hepatology and gastroenterology. In 1994 he discovered that primary sclerosing cholangitis was strongly HLA associated. His unfulfilled ambition is to find the cause and association of primary sclerosing cholangitis with inflammatory bowel disease.

Cancer risk in Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) by Dr Stephen D Ryder
Stephen David Ryder Consultant Physician in Hepatology and Gastroenterology Queen’s Medical Centre Nottingham. He is a member of the British Society of Gastroenterology, the European Association for the Study of the Liver and the British Association for the Study of the Liver. He won the Medical research Society Young Investigator Prize in 1995. His numerous publications and reviews include protein expression in cholangiocarcinoma arising in primary sclerosing cholangitis, stress proteins in colorectal mucosa: enhanced expression in ulcerative colitis, rectal bismuth subsalicylate as therapy for ulcerative colitis and clinical features of ulcerative colitis.

Adult bone marrow stem cells in the treatment of patients with liver disease by Professor Nagy A Habib (pdf)
He is the Professor of Hepatobiliary Surgery at Imperial College London, and Honorary Consultant Surgeon at Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust, and responsible for HPB surgery and the provision of safe surgery with minimal mortality. He invented two surgical techniques, the scalpel technique for liver resection (published in American Journal of Surgery) and the radiofrequency assisted liver resection technique for bloodless liver resection (published in Annals of Surgery). His particular interests are in bioengineering, stem cell therapy and gene therapy. He is editorial board member for Cancer Gene Therapy Journal, and Cancer Biology and Therapy. He is on the editorial review panel for the Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, Annals Royal College of Surgeons of England, European Journal of Cancer and Technology and Health Care (International Journal of Health Care Engineering).

Mechanisms of biliary epithelial cell destruction in Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis by Suchitra Holgersson Associate Professor of Clinical Immunology (pdf)
Professor Holgersson is a transplant immunologist working with mechanisms underlying organ allograft rejections. However, in the past 10 years she has also been involved in studying the mechanisms of autoimmune liver diseases with special emphasis on Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis. She has had numerous papers published internationally and has patented new methods of affecting organ transplants.

Clustering of PSC near hazardous waste sites by Assistant Professor, J Odin (pdf)
Professor Odin who has been an assistant professor of medicine in the division of liver diseases at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City for the past 5 years after completion of a fellowship in gastroenterology and hepatology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. His interest in liver disease and hepatotoxins began as an undergraduate researcher at Cornell University in 1984 where he studied the effects of fluoride on hepatic gluconeogenesis. Dr. Odin's current research is focused on the role of the environment and macrophage dysfunction in PSC, PBC, and AIH. His most recent publication in collaboration with researchers at Mount Sinai including Aftab Ala, now at nearby Frimley Park Hospital, focused on clustering of individuals with PBC and PSC near known toxic waste sites in New York City. He elaborates on those findings and discusses future research on toxin exposure and immune-mediated liver diseases.