Jan LERUT, MD, PhD; Emeritus Professor of Surgery (February 18th, 1951)

From the start of his surgical career he was very involved in the field of organ transplantation and HBP surgery. This interest resulted in a two years hepatobiliary and transplantation NATO-fellowship at the University Paris-Sud?Centre Hépatobiliaire under the lead of Prof. BISMUTH and at the University Pittsburgh Medical Centre under the lead of Prof. STARZL. He was director of the abdominal transplant program at the Inselspital University Bern (CH) from 1987 to 1991 (under the lead of Prof.BLUMGART). From 1991 to 2016 he was Director of the Starzl Abdominal Transplant Unit, University Hospitals Saint Luc and Director of the UCL Transplant Center in Brussels.

His surgical and professional training is particular because having taken place in 6 different linguistic and cultural environments (Dutch, French, German, English, Italian and Polish speaking countries), a condition which allowed him to have a good insight in the evolution and perception of surgery not only in Europe but also worldwide.

During the last years he worked actively at bringing together the Eastern and Western liver transplantation (LT)  worlds. Many invited lectures and study visits in China, Hong Kong, Japan, South-Korea and Taiwan led  to scientifically very successful collaborative East-West and European Hepatocellular cancer- Liver transplantation (EURHeCaLT) efforts.

He has served as president of the Belgian Society of Transplantation (BST), the Royal Belgian Society of Surgery (RBSS), the Eurotransplant Liver Allocation Committee (ET-ELIAC), the European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT),the International Liver Transplantation Society (ILTS).He is vice-chair of the UEMS European Board of Transplantation Surgery (EBTS) and member of the Belgian Superior Health Council.

He has published 370 peer-reviewed articles (H-index 49), he authored 28 books chapters and 24 scientific films. He organized 51 surgical and transplantation meetings. He made 760 communications on national and international congresses, most of them devoted to liver surgery and transplantation. He received the ILTS and ELITA distinguished service awards as well as the TTS “Best investigator driven study” and “Mentorship, Education  and Training in Transplantation” awards. He is member the French Academy of Surgery.

He has been visiting professor at many renowned institutions such as Mayo Clinic Foundation, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, the medical faculties of Tokyo University, Universidade da Sao Paolo, La Cattolica University Santiago de Chili, La Calle University,Cali, Warsaw Medical University and of the Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital. Actually he is honorary director of the Transplantation Institute at the International Shulan Hospital, University of Zhejiang in Hangzhou (Cn).

His research interests focus on the development of technical refinements in liver transplantation, transplantation oncology, the use of minimal immunosuppression and tolerance induction in liver and the collaboration between East and Western surgical worlds

Born in Athens in 1972, Alexandra Dili graduated in medicine in 1999, and specialized in digestive and oncologic surgery, with a marked interest in Hepato-Bilio-Pancreatic pathology and surgery. She became president of the Belgian Section of Hepato-Bilio-Pancreatic Surgery (BSHPBS) in 2018, and president of the Belgian National Chapter in Hepato-Bilio-Pancreatic surgery in 2019.
In parallel, she carried out research work on liver regeneration after extended “small-for-size” setting hepatectomy and obtained a PhD degree in 2020.
Currently, HPB surgeon at CHU-UcL-Namur, Godinne site in Belgium, she continues the experimental research on liver regeneration as post-doctoral specialist in the Gastroenterology and Hepatology laboratory (GAEN), at the clinical and experimental research institute (IREC), working for the Scientific Research Foundation (FNRS).

• Professor of Surgery, Superintendent Emeritus,
• Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital
• Academician, Chinese Academy of Engineering

Professor Chao-Long Chen is a pioneer liver transplant surgeon who performed the first successful liver transplantation in Asia in 1984, and by 2019, has accomplished 1900 more. He obtained fellowship training in liver transplantation under Professor Thomas Starzl at the University of Pittsburgh, USA. He is a recipient of various honors and distinctions, both locally and internationally. He became Professor of Surgery in 1993 and was subsequently bestowed with honorary PhD and professorship by acclaimed international universities. In 1994, he performed the first LDLT in Taiwan and was bestowed with the National Award for Outstanding Contribution in Science and Technology in 1995. He did the first split liver transplantation in Asia in 1997 and started the adult LDLT in Taiwan by 1999. Further, he performed the first dual graft LDLT in Taiwan in 2002, pioneered routine microsurgical biliary reconstruction in the world in 2006, and performed Taiwan’s first segment 2 monosegment LDLT in 2013. He was bestowed the ILTS Distinguished Service Award in 2019.

He was Superintendent of the Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital from 2003 and became Superintendent Emeritus since 2015. He has published more than 500 SCI-cited scientific articles, lectured in more than 300 international and overseas congresses, and has trained more than 360 fellows and observers from all across the world. He serves as associate editor of the American Journal of Transplantation and editorial board of Annals of Surgery among other high ranking scientific journals. He was elected as Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2007 and as President of the International LDLT Group in 2020-21. He remains director of one of the leading global centers in LDLT.

More information: www.clchen.org.tw