7th Annual International Conference on Liver Diseases was held at the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health Osijek from September 29 to October 1, 2022,organized by the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health Osijek, Mursa Medical Center and the Croatian Society for personalized and precision medicine.
This year, the editors of the congress program, Prof. Dr.Sc. Aleksandar Včev, Dean of the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health Osijek, Prof. Ph.D. George Y. Wu, Professor Emeritus at the College of Connecticut and Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health Osijek, Prof. Martina Smolić, Ph.D., Vice Dean for Science and Postgraduate Studies at the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health Osijek and First Vice President of the Croatian Society for personalized and precision medicine of the Croatian Medical Association, and Associate Professor, Ph.D. Robert Smolić, Director of the Mursa Medical Center, succeeded in bringing together outstanding scientists and experts dealing with liver diseases from Croatia, the United States of America, Egypt, the Netherlands, Belgium and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Croatian Medical Chamber classified this scientific meeting as an international congress, and all active participants received 20 points, while passive participants received 12 points.
The 7th Annual International Conference on Liver Diseases has been a successful scientific meeting for many years, traditionally gathering experts from all over the world at our university. It began as a meeting primarily concerned with viral hepatitis, but with the accelerated progress of science and the profession in other areas of hepatology, the actual theme of the Congress is being broadened. Thus, this year, special emphasis was placed on the problem of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, which is estimated to affect one-third of the world's population; drug-induced liver injury, which is the major reason for withdrawal of drugs from the market; extrahepatic complications of liver disease; and the latest options and strategies for treating liver disease.
During the three-day conference, numerous lectures were given by distinguished scientists who exchanged experiences and ideas in motivating and highly productive discussions, with the aim of finding the best possible solutions to the current challenges in hepatology. The congress participants, among whom were excellent students of the Faculty of Dentistry and Public Health, had the opportunity to communicate directly with world-renowned professors. Particularly interesting lectures were given by Prof. Ph.D.Sc. Patrick C. N. Rensen, professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands, who presented to the participants the latest findings on the modulation of energy metabolism as a targeted therapy for obesity and related cardiometabolic diseases, Prof. Dr.Sc. Leo van Grunsven, professor at the University of Brussels in Belgium, on the progress made in the development of complex 3D liver cultures. Indeed, his research group has succeeded in establishing the first in vitro liver fibrosis model that will enable the development of new drugs for liver fibrosis, a disease for which there is currently no adequate treatment, while Prof. George Y. Ph.D. Wu presented news on the pathogenesis and treatment of viral hepatitis B, and Prof. Ashraf Tabll, Ph.D., professor at the National Research Centre in Cairo, Egypt, presented news and progress on the development of a vaccine against hepatitis C virus. Prof. Ervin Alibegović, Ph.D., from the University of Tuzla, gave an overview of the current status and development of hepatology in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the quality of the presentations by the local scientists and experts was on par with the presentations by the invited foreign speakers.
The comments from the participants, as well as from the invited speakers themselves, were extremely positive, and it was particularly inspiring to listen to the constructive discussions and exchange of ideas from world-class scientists who selflessly shared their thoughts and ideas with our residents and students. What was special about this congress was that our faculty proved to be a place that brings together world-renowned scientists after 27 years! At the very beginning of the congress, Prof. Patrick C. Ph.D. met. N. Rensen met our visiting professor Prof. Dr.Sc. George Y. Wuom recalling the written report of the results of his first research, which had left an indelible mark on him, and which had been written 27 years ago by Prof. Ph.D. George Y. Wu had written. Prof. Ph.D. George Y. Wu was in fact one of the reviewers of his first paper published in Nature Medicine and stated, "I like the Faculty of Dentistry and Health in Osijek. I finally have the opportunity to thank Prof. Ph.D. George Y. Wu for the contribution he made to my development at the beginning of my career.
After the conference, the members of the Organizing Committee are especially proud and grateful for the established cooperation between the faculty members of our Faculty and the scientists who publish the results of their research in the most prestigious world journals such as Nature, Science and Cell, thus sincerely supporting the efforts for the development of science at our Faculty and warmly inviting our students and assistants for shorter and longer stays and training in their laboratories.
