
Sven Francque (Antwerp, BEL)
(Speaker)
- Prof. Dr. Sven Francque obtained his MD at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, in 1994 and was subsequently trained in internal medicine and in gastroenterology and hepatology at the Antwerp University Hospital, Belgium and at the Department of Hepatology of the Beaujon hospital, Clichy, France. He has a long-standing interest and expertise in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)/metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and conducted basic research focusing on the vascular changes in steatosis and their contribution to disease progression and leading to his PhD in 2011. His research unit continues to study pathophysiological mechanisms of NASH/MASH, with a sustained focus on vascular mechanisms throughout the severity spectrum of MASLD, as well as on the adipose tissue-liver interaction. He is also conducting clinical research and his unit is partner in several research consortia supported by the European Commission, the Innovative Medicines Initiative and the Innovative Health Initiative with a focus on MASH pathophysiology (with a focus on inter-organ cross-talk and the link with metabolism (especially PPARs), biomarker research and hepatocellular carcinoma. His clinical trial unit participates from the early days of clinical trials in NASH/MASH in many clinical trials in the field. Prof. Francque is as scientific committee member involved in the design of several phase 2 and current phase 3 trials in NAFLD and is national/international lead PI of several of these trials. He is also president of the scientific committee of the PanNASH Initiative and member of the scientific committee of the NASH Education Program. He is author/co-author of over 250 papers in peer-reviewed journals and authored several book chapters on NAFLD/MASLD. He was editor of JHep Reports, the open-access journal of the European Association for the Study of the Liver. He is Educational Councillor on the EASL Governing Board. He is senior clinical researcher for the Research Fund of the Flemish government. He is currently chairman of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology of the University Hospital Antwerp and senior full professor of medicine and chairman of the department of Translational Sciences in Inflammation and Immunology (TWI2N) at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Antwerp. He is scientific coordinator of the Belgian Week of Gastroenterology, the Belgian national gastroenterology and hepatology research meeting. He coordinated the Belgian guidelines on NAFLD and the EASL Patient NAFLD Guideline.