Agenda

The Liver Biology Conference: Fundamental Mechanisms and Translational Applications

Wednesday, June 16, 2021
 
Time (US Eastern) Event
10:00 am – 10:15 am Day One: Welcome Address
Stacey Huppert (Cincinnati Children's Hospital)
10:15 am – 11:00 am Keynote Address: Ludovic Vallier (University of Cambridge, UK)
“Organoids and Pluripotent Stem Cells to Study Liver Biology and Diseases” (30 min talk, 15 min Q&A)
Moderator: Stacey Huppert (Cincinnati Children's Hospital)
11:00 am – 11:10 am Break
11:10 am – 12:30 pm Session 1: Hepatogenesis and Hepatic Architecture Establishment
Co-Chairs: Stacey Huppert (Cincinnati Children's Hospital) and Beatriz Sosa-Pineada (University of Northwestern)
11:10 am – 11:30 am Naoki Tanimizu (Sapporo Medical University, Japan)
“3D Analyses of Liver Tissue Structures and Reconstitution of the Hepatobiliary Connection ex vivo”
11:30 am – 11:50 am Francesca Spagnoli (King's College London, UK)
“Deconstructing the Liver and Pancreas Lineages: Paths and Plasticity”
11:50 am – 12:00 pm Tabea Stephan (University of British Columbia, Canada)
"Chromatin Dynamics and Transcription Factor Networks Driving Hepatic Fate in iPSC Derived Hepatocytes"
12:00 pm – 12:10 pm Tianliang Sun (Novartis Institute for BioMedical Research, Switzerland)
"ZNRF3 and RNF43 Cooperate to Safeguard Metabolic Liver Zonation and Hepatocyte Proliferation"
12:10 pm – 12:30 pm Q&A/Panel Discussion
Moderators: Stacey Huppert (Cincinnati Children's Hospital) and Beatriz Sosa-Pineada (University of Northwestern)
12:30 pm – 12:50 pm Break
12:50 pm – 2:10 pm Session 2: Non-Parenchymal Cell Biology, Liver Injuries, and Fibrosis
Co-Chairs: Robert Schwabe (Columbia University) and Robert Schwartz (Weill Cornell Medicine)
12:50 pm – 1:10 pm Laurie De Leve (University of Southern California)
“Hepatic Fibrosis: Immature Cells with Poor Communication Skills”
1:10 pm – 1:30 pm Yasuko Iwakiri (Yale School of Medicine)
"A Novel Mechanism of Endothelial Cell Dysfunction in Liver Disease"
1:30 pm – 1:50 pm Mark McNiven (Mayo Clinic)
"New Insights into Hepatocellular Lipophagy"
1:50 pm – 2:10 pm Q&A/Panel Discussion
Moderators: Robert Schwabe (Columbia University) and Robert Schwartz (Weill Cornell Medicine)
2:10 pm – 2:30 pm Break
2:30 pm – 3:30 pm Trainee Event
Organizer: Andrew Duncan (University of Pittsburgh)
The goal of this session is to begin building a community among trainees. We will break into small groups, get to know our fellow hepatomaniacs, and have a little fun.

Tentative Agenda:
2:30 pm – 2:40 pm: Introduction (attendees: please enter the Zoom room through the virtual platform)
2:40 pm – 3:10 pm: Roundtables (attendees: please go to Roundtable rooms listed at the bottom of the Roundtables page in the virtual platform. )
Groups should be evenly sized (6-10 people). There will not be a moderator for each room, so someone in each group will need to be the leader. The leader will need to take a few notes because she/he will report back to the full group at the end.
Participants in each roundtable groups should learn about each other. Participants will take turns sharing information. There are two discussion points.
First: Introduce yourself
a. Name
b. Position
c. Where you are from
d. What you work on (big picture)
e. One specialty technique you do
f. One fun fact about yourself
Second: Discussion
There have been a lot of exciting papers in liver research over the last year. What are some of most interesting papers? Use whatever criteria you like to define “interesting” (cool technique, translational relevance, paradigm shifting, etc.). The group should decide on two or three papers published in 2020 or 2021. Please find links for each paper. This should be a fun exercise — there’s no need to critique the papers!
3:10 to 3:30 pm: Roundtable groups will join the full session on Zoom. A representative will briefly summarize the diversity within their group (based on the Introductions) and mention the group’s favorite papers.
3:30 pm – 3:50 pm Break
3:50 pm – 5:10 pm Session 3: Bile Acid Signaling and the Microbiome
Co-Chairs: Grace Guo (Rutgers University) and David Moore (University of California, Berkeley)
3:50 pm – 4:10 pm Bernd Schnabl (University of California, San Diego)
“Microbiome Centered Therapies for Fatty Liver Disease”
4:10 pm – 4:30 pm HuiPing Zhou (Virginia Commonwealth University)
“Bile Acids and Sphingolipids in Cholestatic Liver Diseases”
4:30 pm – 4:40 pm Ramiro Jover (University of Valencia - IIS Hospital La Fe - CIBERehd, Spain)
"The Synbiotic Combination of Akkermansia Muciniphila and Quercetin Ameliorates Early Obesity and NAFLD through Gut Microbiota Reshaping and Liver Bile Acid Metabolism Modulation"
4:40 pm – 4:50 pm Wenyang Li (Gastrointestinal Unit of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School)
"Nanchangmycin Exerts Antifibrotic Activity by Inhibiting Collagen Production, Migration, and Proliferation of Hepatic Stellate Cells"
4:50 pm – 5:10 pm Q&A/Panel Discussion
Moderators: Grace Guo (Rutgers University) and David Moore (University of California, Berkeley)
5:10 pm – 5:30 pm Break
5:30 pm – 6:50 pm

Session 4: Abstract Flash Talks
There will be 10 Abstract Flash Talk Parallel Sessions. Flash talk presenters should go to their room on the Roundtables page of the virtual platform at 5:25pm.

Flash Talk Room 1 – Moderator: Andrew Duncan. Presenters (Priyanka Banerjee, Helene Baribault – 3 talks, Tomasz Bednarsk)
Flash Talk Room 2 – Moderator: Heather Francis. Presenters (Delfin Gerard Buyco, Som Dev, Elissa Everton, Russell Fletcher, Erica Gansemer)
Flash Talk Room 3 – Moderator: Laurie De Leve. Presenters (Marko Groeger, Maya Haaker, Kaisa Hanley, Anja Hess, Jessica Hoff)
Flash Talk Room 4 – Moderator: Kari Nejak-Bowen. Presenters (Pamela Hoodless, Shikai Hu, Ishita Jain, Jieyun Jiang, Michael Johnston)
Flash Talk Room 5 – Moderator: Stacey Huppert. Presenters (Srivatsan Kidambi – 2 talks, Manasi Kotulkar, Cynthia Lebeaupin, Yan Liang)
Flash Talk Room 6 – Moderator: Udayan Apte. Presenters (Jessica Llewellyn, Jeremy Lotto, Amaia Lujambio, Svetlana Lutsenko, Amin Mahpour)
Flash Talk Room 7 –  Moderator: Gen-Sheng Feng. Presenters (Jessica Maiers – 2 talks, Aras Mattis, Laura Molina, Austin Moore)
Flash Talk Room 8 – Moderator: Anna Mae Diehl. Presenters (Adrian Press, Fatima Rizvi, Dakota Robarts, Eleonora Scorletti, Anit Shah)
Flash Talk Room 9 – Moderator: Robert Schwartz. Presenters (Soona Shin, Anna Smith, Michael Thompson, Nikolai Timchenko)
Flash Talk Room 10 – Moderator: Chunyue Yin. Presenters (Man Tong, Shuang Wang, Yang Xiao, Ling Xiong)
5:30 pm – 6:30 pm 5-7 min abstract flash talks
6:30 pm – 6:50 pm Discussion
6:50 pm - 7:50 pm Virtual Happy Hour
Please note that a different Zoom link will be used for the Happy Hour: https://zoom.us/j/97262929600
 
Thursday, June 17, 2021
 
Time (US Eastern) Event
10:00 am – 10:15 am Day Two: Welcome Address
Gen-Sheng Feng (University of California, San Diego) and Lars Zender (University Hospital Tübingen, Germany)
10:15 am – 11:00 am Keynote Address: Mitch Lazar (University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine)
“Circadian Rhythm and Liver Metabolism” (30 min talk, 15 min Q&A)
Moderator: Gen-Sheng Feng (University of California, San Diego)
11:00 am – 11:10 am Break
11:10 am – 12:30 pm Session 5: Comprehensive Analyses of Hepatocellular Carcinogenesis
Co-Chairs: Gen-Sheng Feng (University of California, San Diego) and Paul Monga (University of Pittsburgh)
11:10 am – 11:30 am Stephanie Ma (The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)
“Cancer Stem Cells and the Tumor Microenvironment in Hepatocellular Carcinoma”
11:30 am – 11:50 am Ramanuj DasGupta (Genome Institute of Singapore, Singapore)
“Fetal Echoes” in HCC Tumor Microenvironment
11:50 am – 12:00 pm Romain Donne (Centre de Recherche des Cordeliers, INSERM UMRS, France)
"Replication Stress Triggered by Nucleotide Pool Imbalance Drives  DNA Damage and Cytosolic DNA Sensing Pathway Activation in Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease"
12:00 pm – 12:10 pm Chanyanuch Nakapakorn (Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine)
"Dietary Fatty acid Palmitate Activates Tumor-lymphangiogenic Pathways and Modulates Metabolic re-programming and Epithelial-mesenchymal Transition to Promote Cholangiocarcinoma"
12:10 pm – 12:30 pm Q&A/Panel Discussion
Moderators: Gen-Sheng Feng (University of California, San Diego) and Paul Monga (University of Pittsburgh)
12:30 pm – 12:50 pm Break
12:50 pm – 2:10 pm Session 6: Comprehensive Analyses of Hepatocellular Carcinogenesis
Co-Chairs: Xin Wei Wang (NIH) and Amaia Lujambio (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai)
12:50 pm – 1:10 pm Jessica Zucman-Rossi  (INSERM, France)
“Genomics of Pediatric Liver Cancer: Cell Plasticity and Resistance to Cisplatin”
1:10 pm – 1:30 pm Xin Chen (University of California, San Francisco)
“Preclinical Studies of Anti-AFP Vaccine based Combination Therapy for HCC Treatment”
1:30 pm – 1:40 pm Alia Ghrayeb (Israel Institute of Technology, Israel)
"Non-Alcoholic Steatosis Exacerbates Acetaminophen-Induced Hepatotoxicity Through Glutathione Depletion"
1:40 pm – 1:50 pm Miryam Müller (CRUK Beatson Institute, UK)
"Identifying Effective Subtype-specific Treatment Responses in Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Genetically Engineered Mouse Models"
1:50 pm – 2:10 pm Q&A/Panel Discussion
Moderators: Xin Wei Wang (NIH) and Amaia Lujambio (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai)
2:10 pm – 2:30 pm Break
2:30 pm – 3:30 pm Meet-the-Expert Roundtables
Group 1: Paul Monga, Lars Zender
Group 2: HuiPing Zhou, Mitch Lazar
Group 3: Udayan Apte, David Moore
Group 4: Tom Bird, Kari Nejak-Bowen
Group 5: Mathias Heikenwalder, Anna Mai Diehl
Group 6: Amaia Lujambio, Stephanie Ma
Group 7: Robert Schwartz, Ludovic Vallier
Group 8: Rotonya Carr, Laurie De Leve
Group 9: Heather Francis, George Michalopoulos
Group 10: Andrew Duncan, Francesca Spagnoli
3:30 pm – 3:50 pm Break
3:50 pm – 5:10 pm Session 7: Hepatic Plasticity and Regenerative Medicine
Co-Chairs: Holger Willenbring (University of California, San Francisco) and Tom Bird (CRUK Beatson Institute)
3:50 pm – 4:10 pm Stuart Forbes (University of Edinburgh, UK)
“Cholangiocyte to Hepatocyte Conversion”
4:10 pm – 4:30 pm Fernando Camargo (Harvard University)
“Hippo Signaling and Liver Cell Reprogramming”
4:30 pm – 4:40 pm Saumya Manmadhan (Technical University of Munich, Germany)
"The Role of CD44 in the Regulation of YAP in Hepatocellular Carcinoma"
4:40 pm – 4:50 pm Yitzhak Reizel (UPenn)
"Liver Stability and Plasticity is Maintained by FoxA Pioneer Factors and DNA Methylation"
4:50 pm – 5:10 pm Q&A/Panel Discussion
Moderators: Holger Willenbring (University of California, San Francisco) and Tom Bird (CRUK Beatson Institute)
5:10 pm – 5:30 pm Break
5:30 pm – 6:50 pm Session 8: Hepatic Plasticity and Regenerative Medicine
Co-Chairs: Markus Grompe (Oregon Health & Science University) and Kari Nejak-Bowen (University of Pittsburgh)
5:30 pm – 5:50 pm Hao Zhu (UT Southwestern)
“Mechanisms of Tissue Regeneration and Implications for Cancer”
5:50 pm – 6:10 pm Donghun Shin (University of Pittsburgh)
"Plasticity of Hepatocytes and Cholangiocytes during Regeneration in Zebrafish"
6:10 pm – 6:20 pm Bianca Suur (Karolinska Institute, Sweden)
"Proprotein Convertase Subtilisin/Kexin 6 is Involved in Lipid Metabolism in Liver and Adipose Tissue"
6:20 pm – 6:30 pm Valerie Gouon-Evans (Boston University)
"Murine Liver Repair via Transient Activation of Regenerative Pathways in Hepatocytes Using Lipid Nanoparticle-complexed Nucleoside-modified mRNA"
6:30 pm – 6:50 pm Q&A/Panel Discussion
Moderators: Markus Grompe (Oregon Health & Science University) and Kari Nejak-Bowen (University of Pittsburgh)
6:50 pm – 7:00 pm Wrap-up Led by Conference Organizers
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm Virtual Happy Hour
Please note that a different Zoom link will be used for the Happy Hour: https://zoom.us/j/99319109700