Speakers
Domenico Accili
USA
Domenico Accili
Dr. Accili serves as the Russell Berrie Foundation Professor of Diabetes, Chief of the Endocrinology Division, and Director of the Diabetes Research Center at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. Highly regarded for transformative findings that have advanced our understanding of the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes, Dr. Accili has contributed more than 300 publications in top-tier medical journals. Dr. Accili’s body of work reflects significant, paradigm-shifting discoveries that hold promise for translating to novel approaches for diabetes prevention and care. He has received numerous awards, including the Banting Medal and the Lilly Award from the American Diabetes Association, the Claude Bernard Medal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, The Manpei Suzuki Prize, the University of Chicago’s Steiner Award, and the Endocrine Society’s Astwood Award.
Nir Barzilai
USA
Nir Barzilai
I am a geroscientist, chaired Professor of Medicine and Genetics, the founder and the principal investigator of the Einstein Nathan Shock Center and the Glenn Center for excellence in Biology of Aging. I also study families of centenarians that have provided genetic/biological insights on the protection against aging. Several drugs are developed based, in part, on these paradigm-changing studies. I am also leading the TAME (Targeting/Taming Aging with Metformin) to prove to the FDA that aging can be delayed and to allow for next-generation interventions (https://www.afar.org/tame-trial). I authored over 300 peer-reviewed papers and was a recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the 2010 Irving S. Wright Award for Distinction in Aging Research and the 2018 recipient of the IPSEN Longevity award. I am on the board of AFAR, and its scientific director and a founding member of the Academy for Healthspan and Lifespan, The Longevity Biotech Association, and the Healthy Longevity Medicine Society. I co-founded CohBar and Lifebiosciences. I am featured in prominent papers, podcasts, TV programs, documentaries, TED talks, consulting for the Singapore government several International Banks, The Vatican, Milken Institute, and Davos Economic Forum. My book Age Later was published in June 2020.
Zachary Bloomgarden
USA
Zachary Bloomgarden
Our current understanding of the development of type 1 diabetes (T1D) suggest small molecule treatments which may ameliorate the illness. Recognizing that β-cell autoimmunity is a major element in T1D development, small molecule immunomodulatory approaches may have promise. Another aspect of T1D development may be reduction in β-cell proliferative capacity among susceptible individuals, and several pro-proliferative approaches have been suggested. Finally, there is the intriguing possibility that endoderm-derived extrapancreatic cells may have the potential to be reprogrammed to produce insulin in a glucose-sensitive fashion.
Antonio Ceriello
Italy
Antonio Ceriello
Professor Antonio Ceriello is Research Consultant at IRCCS MultiMedica, Milan, Italy. Currently, is the President of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) Study Group on “Diabetes and Cardiovascular Diseases”.
From July 1st 2016 he has been appointed as Editor in Chief of “Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice”, the official IDF journal.
Juliana Chan
Hong Kong
Juliana Chan
Professor Juliana Chan is Professor of Medicine and Therapeutics and Director, Hong Kong Institute of Diabetes and Obesity at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital. She is a physician researcher specialised in endocrinology and clinical pharmacology. Since 1995, she led a multidisciplinary team to change the setting and logistics and establish the Hong Kong Diabetes Register as a data-driven quality improvement program, accompanied by a biobank for multiomic analysis to improve precision of disease classification for personalized care. In 2007, she founded the Asia Diabetes Foundation to design the first web-based Joint Asia Diabetes Evaluation (JADE) Technology and use data to stratify risk, empower self-management and promote shared decision-making with enrollment of over 120,000 patients from 11 countries in Asia. Professor Chan has published 900 articles and 20 book chapters whilst the CUHK-PWH is recognized as an International Diabetes Federation Centre of Excellence in Diabetes Care. She is a committee member of international landmark studies and Hong Kong Government research and healthcare policies related to diabetes and non-communicable diseases. She is a recipient of the American Diabetes Association Harold Rifkin Award for Distinguished International Service in the Cause of Diabetes and leads The Lancet Commission Report advocating the use of data to transform diabetes care and patient lives.
Gil Chernin
Israel
Gil Chernin
Professor Chernin is the director of the Nephrology and Hypertension Institute of the Kaplan Medical Center in Rehoboth and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Faculty of Medicine. He is also the immediate past president of the Israeli Society of Nephrology and Hypertension (ISNH). Dr Chernin graduated from the Hebrew University School of Medicine in Jerusalem and subsequently received his clinical training of Medicine and Nephrology at the Tel-Aviv Medical Center in Tel-Aviv.
He undertook a research fellowship in the laboratory of Professor Friedhelm Hildebrandt at the University of Michigan, focusing on the field of monogenic proteinuric kidney diseases. His research interests encompass both the fields of hereditary kidney disease and cardiovascular outcomes in CKD. He serves as a member of the Israeli National Council of Diabetes and other national committees in the field of dialysis. Dr. Chernin is highly engaged in advocating for better kidney health and national implementing of strategies to detect and treat chronic kidney disease. One of his main loves is mentoring and teaching of the younger generation of students and physicians. For this passion, he received numerous prizes for excellence in teaching.
Ricardo Cohen
Brazil
Tali Cukierman-Yaffe
Israel
Tali Cukierman-Yaffe
Prof. Tali Cukierman-Yaffe an endocrinologist, clinical epidemiologist. A senior physician in the Endocrinology Institute, the head of the Centre for Successful Aging with Diabetes at the Sheba Medical Centre, head of the Endocrinology & Diabetes service for women & in pregnancy an associate professor at the Epidemiology department at Tel-Aviv University and a member of the Herczeg institute on aging. She is also a PHRI, Mcmaster University, Canada senior international fellow.
The focus of her research is the challenge of treating diabetes in older age. She has published many articles and has given numerous talks on this topic, is part of working groups writing local and international guidelines on this topic and is an invited advisor in forums dealing with this subject. She was PI and took a key role in several cognitive sub-studies of large CV trials in people with diabetes. In the last several years her research has also been focused on finding technological solutions to improve the care of older people with diabetes. She is the PI of a EFSD funded study aimed at developing a technological solution for the replacement of traditional physical capacity assessments for older people with diabetes and a study aimed at developing a digital Digit Substitution Test cognitive assessment tool.
Barham Abbu Dayeh
USA
Ralph Defronzo
USA
Ralph Defronzo
Ralph A. DeFronzo, MD, is Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Diabetes Division at the University of Texas Health Science Center and the Deputy Director of the Texas Diabetes Institute, San Antonio, Texas. His major interests focus on the pathogenesis and treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus and the central role of insulin resistance in the metabolic-cardiovascular cluster of disorders known collectively as the Insulin Resistance Syndrome. For his work in this area, Dr. DeFronzo has received many national and international awards including the Banting Award from the ADA (2008), and the Claude Bernard Award from the EASD (2008). These represent the highest scientific achievement awards given by the American and European Diabetes Associations, respectively. Dr. DeFronzo also has received the Hamm International Prize (2017), and most recently The Prince Mahidol Award (2023) which recognizes a person worldwide in medicine and science who has made major discoveries leading to advances in global health. With more than 800 articles published in peer-reviewed medical journals, Dr. DeFronzo is a distinguished clinician, teacher, and investigator who has been an invited speaker at major national and international conferences on diabetes mellitus.
Stefano Del Prato
Italy
Stefano Del Prato
Stefano Del Prato is Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the School of Medicine, University of Pisa and Chief of the Section of Diabetes of the Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Pisana, Pisa, Italy. He graduated MD cum laude from the University of Padova and undertook post-graduate specialisation in both Endocrinology and Internal Medicine.
Professor Del Prato’s research interests have always been concerned with diabetes and, in particular, the physiopathology and therapy of type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance syndrome.
He is a member of many societies and associations, including the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), the American Diabetes Association, and the International Diabetes Federation. He acts as referee for all major journals and has served on the Editorial Boards for the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, Diabetes Care, and the Journal of Diabetes and Its Complications, Journal of Endocrinological Investigation, and Diabetes & Vascular Disease Research.
Professor Del Prato has published over 500 articles in national and international journals and has been awarded several honours, including the Prize of the Italian Society of Diabetology for outstanding scientific activity. Having served as Vice-President of the EASD from 2011-14, he became President in 2020. He also served as President of Italian Society of Diabetology (2012-14) and as Chairman of the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (2015-18).
Duality of Interest: Professor Del Prato has received research support/grants from AstraZeneca and Boehringer Ingelheim and speaker’s fees/honoraria from AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly and Company, Novartis Pharmaceutical Company, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi and Takeda Pharmaceuticals. He has also received payments for membership of boards/advisory panels from Abbott, Amarin, Applied Therapeutics, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Eli Lilly & Co, GlaxoSmithKline, Hengrui Pharmaceuticals, Novartis Pharmaceutical Co, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi and consultancy payments from Menarini.
Dror Dicker
Israel
Dror Dicker
Prof. Dicker is the head of Internal Medicine D Department and Obesity Clinic and Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University. Prof. Dicker’s agenda is to contribute, promote and advance the quality of internal medicine and obesity, striving to improve the conditions, expertise, and work environment, and to attract new young doctors to Internal and obesity medicine, all to achieve the best possible patient health. As the President of the Israeli Association for the Study of Obesity and Co-Chair of the Collaborating Centers for obesity management (COM’S), European Association for the Study of Obesity Prof. Dicker strives to promote the educational activities aiming to broaden the knowledge of Internal and Obesity Medicine. In the last 3 years Prof. Dicker lead the treatment of covid-19 patients in his hospital and was a member of the ministry of health advisory board. In March 2022 Prof. Dicker lead a team of physician and nurses from Rabin Medical Center that treat Ukraine refugees on the border of Poland . Prof. Dicker has published more than 100 papers in peer review journals and book chapters, as well as several international guidelines regarding obesity medicine and CVD risk factors. Prof. Dicker is the Immediate Past President of the European Federation of Internal Medicine.
Daniel Drucker
Canada
Daniel Drucker
Dr. Drucker is an Endocrinologist and Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology at University of Toronto. He holds the Banting and Best Diabetes Centre-Novo Nordisk Chair in Incretin Biology. His laboratory is based in the Lunenfeld Tanenbaum Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto and studies the molecular biology and physiology of the glucagon-like peptides. His discoveries have enabled development of several new GLP-1-based therapies for the treatment of diabetes and obesity and GLP-2 analogues for intestinal failure. Drucker has received numerous international awards for his translational science and has been elected to the Order of Canada, the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, Fellowship in the Royal Society (London) and the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine (USA).
Francesco Giorgino
Italy
Francesco Giorgino
Francesco Giorgino is Professor of Endocrinology and Chairman of the Department of Precision and Regenerative Medicine and Ionian Area at the University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy. He is also Chief of the Division of Endocrinology at the University Hospital Policlinico Consorziale in Bari. He has been President of the Italian Society of Endocrinology (SIE) and is currently the Senior Vice President of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD). He has published more than 300 original and review articles and has been an invited speaker at many national and international meetings. His research interests include the mechanisms of insulin resistance and beta-cell dysfunction in type 2 diabetes and the effects of diabetes drugs on pancreatic islets and the cardiovascular system.
Einav Gross
Israel
Einav Gross
Prof. Einav Gross completed his PhD at the Weizmann Institute under the guidance of Prof. Deborah Fass. There, he elucidated the structures of enzymes responsible for generating disulfide bonds de novo. Subsequently, he undertook postdoctoral research at the MRC-LMB in Cambridge, UK, working in Prof. Mario de-Bono’s lab, where he delved into the mechanisms by which animals sense and respond to varying oxygen levels. In late 2011, Prof. Gross established his own lab at the Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University. Here, he has continued his pioneering work in oxygen biology and has innovatively developed small-molecule drugs aimed at promoting healthy aging by activating healthy mitophagy.
Matthias Hebrok
USA
Matthias Hebrok
Matthias Hebrok is Professor & Chair for Applied Stem Cell and Organoid Systems Executive Director, Center for Organoid Systems (COS) Technical University Munich (TUM) and the Director Institute for Diabetes and Organoid Technology (IDOT), Helmholtz Center Munich. He received his Diploma degree in Cell Biology from the Albert-Ludwigs University in Freiburg, Germany, performed his doctoral thesis at the Max-Planck-Institute for Immunobiology, and conducted his postdoctoral research at HHMI at Harvard University. He held the Hurlbut-Johnson Distinguished Professor in Diabetes Research until 2022 and served as the Director of the Diabetes Center at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) from 2010 to 2020. He has made important contributions to the fields of pancreas organ development, stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. His early work focused on defining the embryonic development and adult functions of the pancreas, an organ of the gastrointestinal tract that is afflicted by diabetes and pancreatic cancer. His group has mechanistically defined how deregulation of embryonic signaling pathways promotes the formation of pancreatic cancer. He also generated sophisticated human stem cell tools to build functional replicas of human hormone-producing islet structures, a novel cutting-edge technology enabling cell therapy for patients with diabetes. He has advised prominent academic Diabetes Centers, served on the SAB of several biotech and stem cell companies, and co-founded Minutia Inc., a company developing novel nanosensors to monitor activities of stem cell derived transplants in patients.
Lambers Heerspink
Netherlands
Philip Home
UK
Baruch Itzhak
Israel
Baruch Itzhak
Dr. Baruch Itzhak is a specialist in Family Medicine and Diabetologist at Clalit Health Services; Haifa; Israel. He was graduated in medicine at Tel-Aviv university in 1986. He received his medical degree of Family Medicine at the Technion faculty of medicine, Haifa in 1994.
Dr. Itzhak is working as a clinician and diabetologist in primary care settings at Clalit Health Services in Israel. He is recognized as a teacher for medical students and residents in Family Medicine and Diabetes, and the project coordinator of Diabetes Education and Quality Assurance in the Community. He is a member of EASD, Israel Association of Family Physicians, Israel National Diabetes council and a board member of the Israel Diabetes Association. He is involved in national and international projects of Diabetes Prevention. Dr. Itzhak is a clinical investigator of Diabetes, Lipids and Hypertension in the Research Unit, Lin Medical Center, Haifa, where he is involved in many clinical studies Phase 2b and Phase 3. His special interest is the prevention of Diabetes and complications, and early initiation and intensification of injectable therapies among primary care providers. He has published many articles related to Diabetes and complications in primary care.
He is an active speaker in national and international conferences, and has participated in many advisory panels.
He is the current secretary of the D & CVD Study Group related to EASD and a council member of EPCCS.
He is a member of PCDE steering committee and an active member of WONCA Europe.
Lee Kaplan
USA
Karsten Kristiansen
Denmark
Karsten Kristiansen
Karsten Kristiansen is Professor of Molecular Biology and heads the Laboratory of Genomics and Molecular Biomedicine at the Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen. Since 2017 he is Professor and Director at BGI-Research, Shenzhen, China and since 2019 also Professor and Director at the Institute of Metagenomics, Qingdao-Europe Advanced Institute for Life Sciences, Qingdao, China. After graduation from the University of Copenhagen, he held research positions at the Max-Planck-Institut für Molekulare Genetik in Berlin and at the Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique, Fondation Edmond de Rothschild, in Paris. He was full professor and head of Department of Molecular Biology, later Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Southern Denmark, 1992-2008, before he was recruited as professor and Head of the Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen in 2008. Central themes of the research of Professor Kristiansen include the interaction between different nutrients in modulating energy homeostasis and how interactions between the host genome, the host immune system, and the gut microbiota regulate gut health and host metabolism, with a focus on inflammation, obesity and obesity associated diseases. In addition, his research groups now explore the interaction between the brain and the gut microbiota. Recently he has initiated work to isolate communities of soil-borne bacteria to be used as bio-pesticides. For these projects, his research groups use a combination of molecular biology approaches, animal and plant studies, metagenomics and genomics. He has published more than 450 articles in refereed journals, many of which in high ranking journals such as Science, Nature, and Cell, and he is a WoS Clarivate highly cited researcher.
Eugene Merzon
Israel
Eugene Merzon
Dr. Merzon received his medical education from Donetsk National Medical University, Ukraine and was awarded a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree Summa Cum Laude. In 1993 he immigrated to Israel and completed residency training in family medicine at Tel Aviv University and became Board Certificated Specialist in Family Medicine. Following this, he was awarded the schoolarfip for Advanced Academic Family Medicine Fellowship, at the School of Public Health and Department of Family Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, USA.
Dr. Merzon currently serves as the head of the Department of Managed Care and the Chair of the Research Committee at the large Israeli health maintenance organization- Leumit Health Services (LHS). In these roles,he is responsible for overseeing the delivery of high-quality healthcare services to the complex, high-cost, high-need patients and ensuring that the latest research is integrated into the care provided by LHS.
Dr. Merzon research interestis aims to better understand the complex relationships between neuropsychiatric disorders with chronic somatic diseases like diabetes and obesity. Dr. Merzon uses big data analysis, mashine learning and artificial intelligence to develop predictive models for identifying patients at high risk of adverse outcomes. He is a co-author of over 55 medical publications.
Alex Miras
Ireland
Alex Miras
Alex Miras is Professor of Endocrinology at Ulster University. His clinical and research work focus solely on Obesity and type 2 diabetes. He has contributed to the clinical management and research in Obesity over the last 12 years, through his work at a high throughput Obesity Centre. The specialist interests of his research Group are the mechanisms of action of interventions for obesity, focusing on pharmacotherapy, medical devices and obesity surgery.
Nicola Napoli
Italy
Nicola Napoli
Prof Napoli received his medical degree in 2000 and completed his clinical fellowship and PhD in Metabolic Diseases at Washington University in St Louis. He is Associate Professor of Endocrinology at University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome and Adjunct Faculty at Washington University in ST Louis. He is Director of the Research Unit of Endocrinology and Diabetes at Campus Bio-Medico University and Chief of the clinical Division, managing, with his group, more than 30.000 patients. His research focuses on new diabetes complications; bone fragility, effect of inflammation and microbiome in diabetes and obesity. He has published more than 150 peer reviewed articles in several prestigious journals like the New England Journal of Medicine, Lanced Diabetes and Endocrinology, Nature Reviews and co-authored several international guidelines. He serves as Associate Editor of Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism and eLife. He has received several research awards by national and International Societies.
Dimitrios Pournaras
UK
Dimitrios Pournaras
Dimitri Pournaras graduated from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece and undertook all his postgraduate training in the UK. He was awarded a Royal College of Surgeons of England Research Fellowship to conduct research on obesity, diabetes and metabolic surgery.
He completed his PhD in the Department of Investigative Medicine, Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College London investigating the mechanism of action of bariatric surgery and the role of the gut on appetite and glucose homeostasis. He then trained in oesophagogastric surgery in Cambridge and Norwich. Following a Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery Fellowship approved by the Royal College of Surgeons of England in Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton, he was appointed as a Consultant Upper Gastrointestinal and Bariatric Surgeon in North Bristol NHS Trust where he currently works as part of the multidisciplinary team treating obesity as a disease.
Dimitri is the inaugural British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society/Royal College of Surgeons of England bariatric Surgical Specialty Lead and is committed to high quality, collaborative, patient centred research with the objective to improve obesity care.
Paolo Pozzilli
Italy
Paolo Pozzilli
Professor Emeritus of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome, Italy, and Professor of Diabetes and Clinical Research at the Centre of Immunobiology, Blizard Institute, St. Bartholomew’s and the London School of Medicine, Queen Mary University of London, UK.
He works in the field of diabetes with particular focus on type 1 diabetes (T1D) pathogenesis and prevention in Rome and in the UK, and in collaboration with investigators worldwide. He published over 550 scientific articles (PubMed), books and reviews on different aspects of diabetes, from basic studies on the autoimmune mechanisms of T1D to late complications of the disease. He is actively engaged in clinical trials testing novel therapies for T1D and type 2 diabetes.
Editor in Chief of Diabetes Metabolism Research and Reviews, and Coordinator of the Master’s Degree Programme in Medicine and Surgery at Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome.
Professor Pozzilli received several Awards, including the Andrew Cudworth Memorial Award by the British Diabetic Association (1984), the Morgagni Award for Best Young Investigator by the International Society of Metabolism (1989), the Award by the Italian Society of Diabetes (1994), the Marie Kugel Award by the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation USA (2003 and 2007), the Diabetes Honoris Causa Award by the Paulescu Foundation, Romanian Diabetes Society (2013), the Celso Prize by the Italian Society of Diabetes (2014) and the Menarini Award, Joseph Hoet Memorial Lecture by the World Foundation on Diabetes Prevention (2016).
Richard Pratley
USA
Richard Pratley
Dr. Richard Pratley serves as the Samuel E. Crockett Chair in Diabetes Research, Senior Investigator and Diabetes Program Lead at the AdventHealth Translational Research Institute, and Medical Director at the AdventHealth Diabetes Institute, in Orlando, Florida. He is also Adjunct Professor of Medicine with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is board certified in internal medicine, received his MD from Wayne State University, and completed fellowships in geriatric medicine and gerontology at the University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins University, and the National Institute on Aging. Dr. Pratley is an internationally recognized expert in diabetes. He lectures frequently, has conducted numerous research studies on the pathogenesis, prevention and treatment of diabetes, and has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles on diabetes and its complications. He has served as a member of the editorial boards of Diabetes Care, The Lancet: Diabetes and Endocrinology, The Journal of Diabetes and its Complications and The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, and is an ad hoc reviewer for many other journals.
Itamar Raz
Israel
Itamar Raz
Itamar Raz MD is a professor of internal medicine, and the head of the Israeli council of diabetes.
- In the last 15 years, together with prof. Ning Guang and Prof. Stefano Del Prato he organized and led the yearly – Controversies to Consensus in Diabetes, Obesity and Hypertension (CODHy) meetings in different part of the world, that was published in five diabetes care proceedings of the ADA.
- Prof Raz is a leader of the Diabetes Experts Forum, a group of worldwide top experts in diabetes.
- He has been co-principal investigator of large studies including DECLARE, SAVORE, IDNT, HEART2D and others.
- He is a co-editor in DMRR, DRCP, Cell and Drugs.
- He has published over 450 papers.
- In Israel, he is the president of two societies to improve and prevent obesity in young children and their families and to improve diabetes research and care for diabetic patients.
Francesco Rubino
UK
Francesco Rubino
Professor of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, King’s College London; Consultant (Hon) Surgeon, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
His clinical expertise includes Laparoscopic/Minimally Invasive Bariatric and Metabolic surgery. Surgical treatment for type 2 diabetes. Revisional bariatric surgery. Metabolic surgery pre- and post-liver transplant.
His research Interests focus on mechanisms of action of gastrointestinal surgery, the role of the gut in type 2 diabetes, mechanisms of weight regulation, weight-bias/stigma of obesity, and COVID-19-related new-onset diabetes.
He has been the main organiser of the Diabetes Surgery Summit, an influential series of consensus conferences that developed international guidelines for surgical treatment of type 2 diabetes. He led the Joint International Consensus Conference on Obesity Stigma and is currently the Chair of the Lancet Commission on the Definition and Diagnosis of Clinical Obesity.
Professor Rubino received his MD and completed his residency in general surgery at the Catholic University/Policlinico Gemelli in Rome, Italy. He completed fellowships in minimally invasive surgery at the European Institute of Telesurgery in Strasbourg, France, Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York and at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. Before joining King’s he was Chief of Gastrointestinal Metabolic Surgery and Director of the Diabetes Surgery Center at Weill Cornell Medical College and New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York, USA.
Banshi Saboo
India
Banshi Saboo
- International Diabetes Federation (IDF) Chair elect for South East Asian (2023-2024)
- Immediate Past President of RSSDI ( Research Society for Study of Diabetes in India) 2019-2020
- President of AIAARO (INDIAN OBESITY SOCITEY) 2016-2020
- Hon. Vice-President of Diabetes in Asia Study Group (DASG)
- Hon. Secretary of Diabetes India
- Launched a Project “Diabetes Free India – 2030”, acknowledged by Hon’ble President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee
- Founder of NGO, Diabetes Care India and India Sweet Registry Project
- ECHO India hub leader, Ahmedabad
- Managing Editor for Sadikot’s International Textbook of Diabetes
- Advisory Board Member JAPI, Journal of Diabetology, JOMR
- Expert of RSSDI Guidelines for management of Diabetes, ATTD CGM Guidelines & ISPAD Guidelines for Paediatric Diabetes
- He has numerous publications in Indexed Journals and have contributed chapters in various textbooks and monograms
- He has awarded Most Impactful Healthcare Leaders by World Health and wellness congress and awards
- Completed many Public Awareness Projects under Diabetes Care India, such as
- RSSDI-Defeat Diabetes Camping
- KADAM (Knowledge based Diabetes Awareness Movement)
- IDEA (Intensive Diabetes Education & Awareness) to STOP Heart Attack
- Multiple Diabetes Clinic along with AMC with support of WDF
- Improve standard of Care for Type 1 Diabetes in Gujarat (Supported by WDF)
Rifaat Safadi
Israel
Nasser Sakran
Israel
Nasser Sakran
Dr. Nasser Sakran is head Department of Surgery at Holy Family Hospital, Nazareth, Israel.
Past president of Israeli Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery
Professor of surgery at the Bar–Ilan University, Faculty of Medicine, Zefat, Israel
Member of the executive board of Israeli Surgical Association
Member of the Steering Committee for the Israeli National Bariatric Surgery Registry, Israel Center for Disease control, Ministry of Health.
Member of IFSO general council
Member of IFSO-EC Scientific Committee and member of Multi National Advisory Group.
Member of Editorial Board of OBSU, Reviewer of SOARD, Journal of Obesity, World Journal of Surgery, Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery.
Jay Skyler
USA
Jay Skyler
Jay S. Skyler, MD, MACP, FRCP is Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Psychology at the University of Miami, and Deputy Director at the Diabetes Research Institute. For 22 years, he was Study Chairman for the NIH Diabetes Prevention Trial for T1D and its successor T1D TrialNet. He was President of the American Diabetes Association. He was founding Editor-in-Chief of Diabetes Care.
Anna Solini
Italy
Anna Solini
Anna Solini is Associate Professor in Internal Medicine at the University of Pisa. She is specialized in diabetes and metabolic diseases, gastroenterology and gerontology. Her research is mainly focused on vascular complications of diabetes (nephropathy and cardiovascular disease), hypertension in diabetes and mechanisms of inflammatory responses in adipose tissue.
Professor Solini has been invited to speak at over 270 national and international meetings. She acts in various national and international committees, including the Committee on Steno Research Collaboration, and she obtained several national and international supporting her research projects. She has published 208 peer-reviewed journal articles and 19 book chapters, and serves as regular reviewer for several journals, including Lancet DE, BMJ, JASN, Diabetes, Diabetologia, DOM, JCEM. She is also a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Diabetes Complications; Diabetes, Metabolism Research and Reviews; Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases; Acta Diabetologica; Journal of Endocrinological Investigation and International Journal of Molecular Sciences. Professor Solini won the Parma Diabete Medal (for the best Italian young investigator) from the Italian Society of Diabetology in 1997 and the Hyppocrates Prize from the Mediterranean Group for the Study of Diabetes in 1998.
Eberhard Standl
Germany
Eberhard Standl
Dr. Eberhard Standl is Professor of Medicine, endocrinologist and angiologist at the Forschergruppe Diabetes eV. at Munich Helmholtz Centre. He graduated from the Universities of Munich and Frankfurt (1967), and has developed his career in both Munich, and at the Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston, USA. He is retired director of the Department of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Metabolism at the Academic Hospital Munich-Schwabing and of the Forschergruppe Diabetes eV.
Professor Dr. Standl’s principal areas of research are diabetology, heart failure and diabetes, micro- and macro-vascular disease, cardio-neuropathy, muscle metabolism, action and degradation of insulin, immune pathogenesis of Type 1 diabetes, oxygen transport to tissue, epidemiology of cardiovascular diabetic complications and related randomized controlled intervention trials evaluating innovative blood glucose lowering drugs. He has published some 667 original papers, review articles, textbook chapters and monographs, and has received a wide range of scientific awards, including the Bertram Award of the German Diabetes Association for research related to vascular disease in diabetes in 1981, the Castelli-Pedroli Prize of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in 1999, the Harold Rifkin Award of the American Diabetes Association 2005, and the Albert Renold Medal of EASD 2006, as well as the Ernst-von-Bergmann Plaque of the German Chamber of Physicians 2002 and the Golden Ribbon of Honour of the Bavarian Internists 2004 for his long-term dedication to medical education. In December 2013, he received the Hellmut Mehnert Award for his lifetime achievement at the World Diabetes Congess of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF). He is a member of several scientific associations, with strong affiliations to the German Diabetes Association, the EASD, and IDF. He was President of the German Diabetes Association 1988/89, vice-President both of EASD and IDF 2003 to 2006 and chairman of the Organizing Committee for the EASD congress 2004 in Munich. Furthermore, he is Past-President both of the German Diabetes Union (2003 to 2008) and of IDF Europe (2007/08) and was co-chair of the Joint Task Force of EASD and ESC (European Society for Cardiology) for the Guidelines on Diabetes, Pre-Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Diseases 2004 – 2009. Currently, he is vice chair of the Study Group on Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease and serves as associate editor of Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice. 2010 he has been elected as Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology. He is an honorary member of multiple National Diabetes as well as Cardiology Societies and Associations.
Pam Taub
USA
Yoel Toledano
Israel
Gilad Twig
Israel
Paul Valensi
France
Paul Valensi
Paul VALENSI is Professor of Nutrition, diabetologist-endocrinologist.
He was Head of the department of Endocrinology-Diabetology-Nutrition, Jean Verdier Hospital (Bondy), Paris-Nord University, France.
Past Chairman of Neurodiab EASD Study Group and Past Chairman of the French Study Group on Heart and diabetes. Currently President of the French Group on diabetes prevention, and member of the Executive Committee of Diabetes & Cardiovascular disease EASD Study Group.
Co-author of European “IMAGE guidelines on diabetes prevention”; “Toronto consensus on diabetic neuropathy” (co-Chair), ESC/EASD guidelines “Diabetes, pre-diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases” (2013, 2019); and of several French guidelines (Evaluation of coronary risk, silent ischemia in patients with diabetes; Sleep apnea syndrome in diabetes…);
Main research topics: cardiovascular and neuropathic disorders in diabetes and obesity, diabetes prevention.
Co-author of some 370 papers quoted in PubMed.
Luc Van Gaal
Belgium
Luc Van Gaal
Luc Van Gaal studied medicine at the University of Antwerp, where he graduated in 1978. He obtained a specialist degree in internal medicine and afterwards in endocrinology and metabolism in 1983. Since then, he has become responsible for the Metabolic Unit at the Antwerp University Hospital. In 1992 he became Professor of Medicine at Antwerp University and head of the department. He is currently -as an emeritus professor- honorary consultant at the department of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Metabolism of the University Hospital.
Professor Van Gaal’s main clinical and research interests are related to obesity, type 2 diabetes and lipid metabolism. He is a member of many scientific, national and international societies and a member of the Editorial Board of a series of scientific journals.
He is a founding member of the Belgian Association for the Study of Obesity (BASO) and Past-President of the Belgian Endocrine Society and the Belgian Diabetes Association. He is also a founding member of the International (IASO) SCOPE programme.
In 2000, he was the co-President of the 10th European Congress on Obesity, organized in Antwerp in May 2000.
He participated to and/or featured as (country) coordinator or principal investigator a number of clinical (outcome) trials in the field of obesity and diabetes.
He is also involved in a number of EU consortia for metabolic diseases, NAFLD and NASH in particular.
He has published more than 430 papers in international medical journals, mainly in the areas of general endocrinology, obesity, diabetes, NAFLD and lipids and has contributed to a number of textbooks about obesity.
Roni Weinberg Sibony
Israel
Roni Weinberg Sibony
Medical studies graduated at Ben-Gurion University, Israel. Her focus is presently on diabetes and obesity prevention. She works as a Project Manager – Data Analysis & Research at the Diabetes Medical Center in Tel Aviv, and is also playing a significant role in the development and implementation of a five-year program conducted in collaboration with the Israel Diabetes Association, the Israeli Ministry of Health and the Israeli Ministry of Regional Cooperation, which aims to prevent diabetes and obesity in Israel and in the countries of the region.
Ram Weiss
Israel
Ram Weiss
Prof. Weiss is a graduate of the Hebrew University school of medicine. He was trained in pediatric endocrinology at Yale University. Prof. Weiss is a full professor at the Bruce Rappaport school of medicine at the Technion in Haifa, Israel. Prof. Weiss’s research focuses on obesity related alterations in glucose metabolism in youth with obesity, specifically in regards to beta cell function and insulin sensitivity. An additional focus of research is advanced technology in type 1 diabetes.