The 8th Biennial International Conference on Liver Diseases was held at the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health Osijek from June 13 to 15, 2024, organized by the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health Osijek, the Mursa Medical Center, the Croatian Society for Precision (Personalized) Medicine, and the Croatian Society of Gastroenterology under the auspices of Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Croatia, the Ministry of Science, Education and Youth of the Republic of Croatia, Osijek-Baranja County and the City of Osijek.
The main organizers of the conference: Prof. Aleksandar Včev, M.D., Ph.D., Dean of the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health Osijek, Prof. George Y. Wu, M.D., Ph.D., professor emeritus of the University of Connecticut and visiting professor of the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health Osijek, Prof. Martina Smolić, M.D., Ph.D., vice-dean for science and postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health and first vice-president of the Croatian Society for Precision (Personalized) Medicine of the Croatian Medical Association, and Prof. Robert Smolić, M.D., Ph.D., a Head of the Department of Pharmacology and Biochemistry of our Faculty and director of the Mursa Medical Center, succeeded in bringing together renowned scientists and experts dealing with liver diseases from Croatia, the United States of America, Egypt, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Poland, Austria, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This year, the number of scientists from abroad was record-breaking confirming the importance of the conference itself in the world of hepatology, but also that of our Faculty as the organizer of such an important international meeting. The Croatian Medical Association categorized this scientific gathering as an international symposium, and all active participants received15 points, and passive participants 10 points, and this year the highest number of participants was reached with more than a hundred registered participants.
The 8th Biennial International Conference on Liver Diseases has been a successful scientific meeting for years, which traditionally gathers experts from all over the world at our University, and it started as a meeting that primarily dealt with viral hepatitis, but with the accelerated progress of science and profession in other areas of hepatology, the very topic of the congress is expanded. Thus, this year special emphasis was placed on metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), which is estimated to affect a third of the world's population, drug-induced liver damage as the main reason for withdrawing drugs from the market, the peculiarities of nursing care, as well as dental care in patients with liver diseases, but also news and possibilities in the diagnosis of liver diseases with an emphasis on radiological treatment, and the latest possibilities and strategies for the treatment of liver diseases.
During the three-day conference, numerous lectures were held by distinguished scientists who, through motivating and extremely productive discussions, exchanged experiences and ideas with the aim of finding the best possible solution for the current challenges in hepatology. The specialty of this conference is a truly multidisciplinary approach where world-renowned scientists lead interesting discussions in which they complement each other with different approaches in the research and treatment of liver diseases. It is precisely these conferences that ultimately lead to exceptional developments in the pharmacotherapy of until recently incurable diseases. For example, Resmetirom, the first drug approved this year for the treatment of MASLD, one of the world's biggest health problems, was repeatedly highlighted at this conference.
Congress participants, among whom were excellent students of the Faculty of Dental Medicine and Health, had the opportunity to communicate directly with world-renowned professors. Particularly interesting lectures were held by Prof. Patrick C. N. Rensen, Ph.D. professor at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, who presented the participants with the latest findings on the recently patented DHCR24 inhibition in the treatment of metabolic dysfunction-induced steatohepatitis (MASH), Prof. Leo van Grunsven, Ph.D., professor at the University of Brussels in Belgium on progress in the development of drugs as well as biomarkers for liver fibrosis, with an emphasis on the role of hepatic stellate cells in the pathogenesis of the disease itself, Dr. Noemi Van Hul from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm on the decoding of epithelial regeneration in the model of cholestatic liver injury, while prof. George Y. Wu, M.D., Ph.D. and Cathrine H. Wu, Ph.D. presented news about the targeted delivery of mitochondria to hepatocytes, and prof. Ashraf Tabll, Ph.D. from the National Research Center in Cairo presented news and progress in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma therapy. Prof. Ervin Alibegović, M.D., Ph.D. from the University of Tuzla presented an overview and assessment of techniques for assessing the degree of steatosis in MASLD, assistant professor Srđan Bjedov, Ph.D. from the University of Novi Sad reported on the latest findings in the field of synthesis of bile acid derivatives as potential FXR agonists in the treatment of liver diseases, while Assist. Prof. Emina Talakić, M.D., Ph.D. from the University of Graz presented innovations in the radiological diagnosis of iron in the liver. Dentists from the University of Katowice, Magdalena Wyszyńska, D.M.D., Ph.D. , Aleksandra Czelakowska, D.M.D., Ph.D., Prof. Malgorzata Skucha-Novak, D.M.D., Ph.D. and Prof. Joanna EZywiec, D.M.D., Ph.D. enriched the conference program with particularly interesting lectures for our dental medicine students on the monitoring of inflammation of the mucous membrane of the digestive system using NO and the condition of the oral cavity, as well as the influence of oral health on the level of NO in exhaled air, while the lectures of local scientists and experts did not lag behind in quality of lectures delivered by invited foreign lecturers.
The comments of the participants, as well as of the invited lecturers themselves, were extremely positive, and it was especially inspiring to listen to constructive discussions and the exchange of ideas of the world's top scientists with our assistants and students, whom they sincerely invited for shorter and longer stays and training in their laboratories.
