Team

Dr. Chalasani completed medical school in India before he moved to the USA to pursue Internal Medicine residency at Emory University in Atlanta, followed by a fellowship in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the same institution. He joined IU in 1997 as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Dr. Chalasani is currently David W. Crabb Professor of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and Adjunct Professor of Anatomy, Cell Biology & Physiology at Indiana University School of Medicine. He previously served as the GI Division Chief (2007-2020), interim Chair of the Department of Medicine (2020-2021) and currently serves as the Vice President for Academic Affairs at Indiana University Health. He is a highly regarded clinician and ranked as Top Doctor continuously for over 15 years.

He has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 1999, and is currently the PI on several U01 and R01 awards from the NIH. Dr. Chalasani is considered an authority in the fields of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) and Drug Induced Liver Injury (DILI), two highly significant public health problems. He was the lead author for the practice guideline on the diagnosis and management of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease by the AASLD published in 2012 and again in 2017 and also is the lead author for the diagnosis and management of drug induced liver injury by the American College of Gastroenterology. He is one of the most published and most cited investigators nationally in the USA, with more than 400 original scientific papers, Google Scholar H-Index 107 and 60,000 citations (as of June 2023).

He has mentored more than 100 trainees and junior faculty members with 19 of his former mentees in faculty positions at major academic centers and 12 are current or former recipients of federal funding. He is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI) and the American Association of Physicians (AAP). He and his colleagues from Indiana University are excited to collaborate with EtCurae and investigators throughout Mexico and Latin America.

Dr. David Kershenobich is a level III emeritus researcher of the National System of Researchers. He served as president of the Mexican Association of Internal Medicine, the Mexican Association of Gastroenterology, the Mexican Association of Hepatology and from 2000 to 2002 as President of the International Association for the Study of the Liver. He has been part of the working group on liver fibrosis of the American Association of Hepatology and collaborated in the editorial board of several national and international journals. He has lectured throughout Mexico and abroad among others at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, the University of Omaha in Nebraska, the New England Medical Center in Boston and BarIlan University in Tel-Aviv.

He has made 489 publications, of which 247 are original articles, 8 books and 111 book chapters.

At UNAM he has been a professor of Gastroenterology since 1975.

He founded the Liver and Pancreas Research Unit located at the General Hospital of Mexico, supervising the Research Directorate of the same Hospital, as well as the Mexican Foundation for Hepatic Health, FundHepa. Since 2007 he directs the interdisciplinary research seminar in biomedicine of the UNAM and from 2005 to 2012 he was a member of the Governing Board of the UNAM. He has been a member of the governing boards of the National Institute of Public Health, the National Institute of Cardiology and the National Cancer Institute. From 2010 to 2012 he was President of the National Academy of Medicine. He was a promoter and achieved in the National Academy of Medicine the publication of posture works prepared by multidisciplinary groups and led to the publication of the first two, one on aging and the other on obesity. In 2011 he served as secretary of the General Health Council of Mexico.

In 1998 in the company of Don Antonio Ariza Cañadilla they created the Mexican Foundation for Hepatic Health, FundHepa, having as its first action to promote together with the then Secretary of Health Dr. Juan Ramón de la Fuente, the universal vaccination of Mexican children against hepatitis B. The support with immunosuppressants to children transplanted liver of scarce resources, encouraged the realization of liver transplants in adults. He has influenced the public policy of diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C, as well as the promotion of research in hepatology. It is a social reference organization in hepatology.

He has received several awards, including the 2014 Medical Merit Award, the "Miguel Otero Arce" Research Award and the "Eduardo Liceaga" Decoration granted by the General Health Council of the Government of Mexico; the University Prize for Clinical Research "Doctor Donato Alarcón Segovia" awarded by the Faculty of Medicine of the UNAM: the Award for Research in the area of Biological and Health Sciences of the Autonomous Metropolitan University; the ABC Award for Medical Excellence, the René Casinn Universal Excellence Award; the Medal of Merit in Sciences and Arts 2015; the Doctor Honoris Causa of the UNAM in 2015 and the National Science Award 2016.

At INCMNSZ he was head of the Clinical Service for 30 years, also holding other positions such as Teaching Coordinator, member of the ethics and research committee, head of the Department of Gastroenterology, member of the Governing Board and from 2012 to 2022 he was General Director.

He is a full member of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the Mexican Institute of Culture, honorary member of the Royal College of Physicians of England, member of the National Academies of Medicine of Spain and Catalonia. Former Counselor of the National Medical Arbitration Commission (CONAMED) and former member of the Mexican Advisory Council of the Human Rights Commission.

Dr. Arun J. Sanyal, is the Director of the Stravitz-Sanyal Institute for Liver Disease and Metabolic Health and Professor of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. He received his MBBS from Maulana Azad Medical College of Delhi University, India and MD from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. Dr Sanyal completed his internal medicine residency at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Amarillo, Texas, and a fellowship in gastroenterology and hepatology at the Virginia Commonwealth University, where he has remained on the faculty as a professor and clinician.

He served as a chair of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) NASH Research Network and is the current Chair of the Liver Study Section at NIH. He is the Academic and Steering Committee Co-Chair of The Liver Forum which brings together FDA, European Medical Agency, Academia, NIH and industry stakeholders in NASH and hepatic fibrosis together to accelerate therapeutic development in these areas. His research into liver diseases has led to recommendations related to variceal hemorrhage, ascites, hepatorenal syndrome, hepatic encephalopathy, and NASH. His work in these areas extends from basic molecular discovery to development of animal models, preclinical evaluation, first in humans to pivotal human trials and then development of practice guidelines and health care delivery and population based outcomes. He has been continuously funded by the NIH since 1995. He is the American Liver Foundation 2017 Distinguished Scientific Award Winner Recipient and and the Distinguished Achievement Award from the AASLD in 2018.

Dr. Sanyal has authored more than 350 articles in such publications as Cell Metabolism, Nature Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and the Journal of Infectious Diseases and has a H-index of over 100. He has served on the editorial boards for American Journal of Gastroenterology, Gut and Hepatology and has been an associate editor for the therapeutic recommendations section of The Gastroenterologist, Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, and Liver International.

Dr Sanyal is past president of the AASLD and is active in numerous professional organizations. Dr Sanyal was involved in the development of the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) and the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) guidelines on the management of variceal hemorrhage, and the AASLD practice guidelines on NAFLD.

He was past chair of the Global Task Force for Liver Diseases of the AASLD, the European Association for the Study of the Liver, the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver, the Latin American Association for the Study of the Liver, and the African Association for Study of Liver Diseases. He is a founding member of the American Board of Internal Medicine in Liver Disease. He has also served on the scientific advisory board for Yale Liver Center.