Welcome message
For most of its history, fatty liver disease was the quiet diagnosis — incidental, under-named, and easy to look past. That era is over. Steatotic liver disease is now the most common chronic liver disease in the world, the subject of a WHO resolution, a renamed condition, and a therapeutic pipeline that has finally started to deliver. With recognition, however, novel clinical challenges arise.
This EASL Steatotic Liver Disease Summit 2027 addresses them through two integrated programmes. We begin with the EASL MASH Innovation and Implementation Roadmap (10-11 February), a dedicated stakeholder initiative focused on translating innovation into equitable patient access across European healthcare systems. This is followed by our three-day main Summit (11–13 February), which aims to generate high-level interaction between experts in the field and move beyond established consensus.
Over these days we will unravel the entire arc of the disease: from the public-health burden and the stigma still carried by patients, through nutrition, diagnostics and clinical-trial design, into the microenvironment, the hepatocyte and its organelles — and back out again to the bedside with a glimpse toward future therapies that will define the next decade. We have deliberately seated the epidemiologist next to the mechanobiologist, the clinical trialist next to the cell biologist, because the most useful answers in this field tend to appear at exactly those intersections.
You will be asked to disagree. Several sessions pose questions we cannot yet answer clearly — whether a change in stiffness truly means a change in disease, whether placebo arms remain defensible, whether we can treat MetALD before we can define it. Bring your data, as well as your scepticism and passion for SLD. We are looking forward to having you at the EASL Steatotic Liver Disease Summit 2027!
EASL and the Organising Committee dedicate the EASL Steatotic Liver Disease Summit 2027 to the memory of Hannes Hagström, whose vision, expertise, and commitment were instrumental in shaping the Summit and developing its scientific programme. His contributions will continue to inspire the SLD community.
EASL MASH Innovation and Implementation Roadmap - Organising Committee
Cyrielle Caussy (EASL Governing Board representative)
France
Cyrielle Caussy (MD, PhD) is a full Professor of Medicine in Nutrition and an endocrinologist-diabetologist in the department of endocrinology, diabetes and nutrition, Lyon South Hospital Hospices Civils de Lyon and Lyon 1 University in France.
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She is also a researcher at CarMen laboratory (Cardio-Metabolism, Diabetes and Nutrition) INSERM U1060. She completed her MD training in 2013 and her PhD in Biochemistry at Lyon 1 University in 2015. Following her fellowship, she completed a 2-year advanced research training at the NAFLD Research Center, University of California at San Diego directed by Pr R. Loomba (2016-2018).
Her academic interests are in metabolic diseases including Type 2 Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD). She leads a clinical and translational research program focusing non-invasive biomarkers and pathophysiology of MALSD at the Lyon Hepatology Institute. She co-leads the national AFEF/SFD Liver and Diabetes study group since 2023 and is a member of European Association for the Study of Liver Disease Scientific Committee since 2024.
Sven Francque (EASL Education Councillor)
Belgium
Prof. Dr. Sven Francque is currently Chairman of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology of the University Hospital Antwerp and Full Professor of Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Antwerp in Belgium.
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He has a longstanding interest and expertise in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and conducted basic research focusing on the vascular changes in steatosis and their contribution to disease progression. His research unit continues to study pathophysiological mechanisms of NASH. He also conducts clinical research, and his unit is a partner in several research consortia supported by the European Commission. He and his unit participate in most of the clinical trials in the field, and he is a scientific committee member involved in the design of several phase 2 and one of the current phase 3 trials in NAFLD. He is a senior clinical researcher for the Research Fund of the Flemish government. He is board member of several scientific societies and currently also scientific coordinator of the Belgian week of Gastroenterology. Prof. Dr. Francque obtained his MD at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, in 1994 and was subsequently trained in internal medicine and in gastroenterology and hepatology at the Antwerp University Hospital, Belgium and at the Department of Hepatology of the Beaujon hospital, Clichy, France.
EASL Steatotic Liver Disease Summit 2027 - Organising Committee
Elena Palma
United Kingdom
Dr Elena Palma is a Principal Investigator and Adjunct Lecturer at the Roger Williams Institute of Liver Studies, King’s College London.
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Her research investigates mitochondrial remodelling in the liver in response to metabolic and alcohol related stressors or cancer, with the aim of elucidating disease mechanisms and identifying novel therapeutic targets. She has significantly contributed to the development and dissemination of precision cut liver slices as an ex vivo model of liver disease and organised two EASL Basic Science Schools on this topic. She is Theme Lead for Steatotic Liver Disease within her department and is also active within the European Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism (ESBRA), contributing to collaborative alcohol research initiatives across Europe.
Horia Ștefănescu
Romania
Horia Ștefănescu MD PhD, is currently senior research hepatologist working at the Regional Institute of Gastroenterology and Hepatology in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
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His clinical research focus is alcohol related (and mixed, metabolic associated and alcohol related) liver disease, from public heath to patient centred perspectives. He is also interested in the noninvasive prediction of liver related events, with a focus on elastography and multiparametric ultrasound and, in biomarker/therapeutic target discovery using translational approaches. He also works within EASL as secretary of the SALVE consortium.
Cyrielle Caussy (EASL Governing Board representative)
France
Cyrielle Caussy (MD, PhD) is a full Professor of Medicine in Nutrition and an endocrinologist-diabetologist in the department of endocrinology, diabetes and nutrition, Lyon South Hospital Hospices Civils de Lyon and Lyon 1 University in France.
Read the bio
She is also a researcher at CarMen laboratory (Cardio-Metabolism, Diabetes and Nutrition) INSERM U1060. She completed her MD training in 2013 and her PhD in Biochemistry at Lyon 1 University in 2015. Following her fellowship, she completed a 2-year advanced research training at the NAFLD Research Center, University of California at San Diego directed by Pr R. Loomba (2016-2018).
Her academic interests are in metabolic diseases including Type 2 Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD). She leads a clinical and translational research program focusing non-invasive biomarkers and pathophysiology of MALSD at the Lyon Hepatology Institute. She co-leads the national AFEF/SFD Liver and Diabetes study group since 2023 and is a member of European Association for the Study of Liver Disease Scientific Committee since 2024.