Meet the organisers
Marina Berenguer
Marina Berenguer, MD, PhD is a Consultant Hepatologist at the Hospital Universitari i Politècnic La Fe in Valencia, Spain, where she serves as Head of the Hepatology and Liver Transplantation Unit. She is also Professor of Medicine at the University of Valencia.
She acts as Research Coordinator of the accredited research group “Hepatology, Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery, and Liver Transplantation” within the Biomedical Research Networking Center for Liver and Digestive Diseases (CIBEREHD) and the La Fe Research Institute, leading multidisciplinary clinical and translational research initiatives in advanced liver disease and liver transplantation.
Professor Berenguer is a full member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of the Valencian Community and has held prominent leadership roles in international professional societies, including serving as President of the International Liver Transplantation Society (ILTS) from 2021 to 2022. She is actively involved in academic medicine and international collaboration, with a sustained commitment to advancing hepatology, liver transplantation, and medical education.
Iva Košuta
Iva Košuta, MD, PhD, FEBGH, FEBTM is a consultant gastroenterologist and hepatologist at the University Hospital Centre Zagreb and a faculty member at the University of Zagreb School of Medicine.
She works within a tertiary intensive care and transplant setting, with a particular focus on advanced liver disease, acute liver failure, acute-on-chronic liver failure, and liver transplantation.
Her research interests lie at the intersection of hepatology, critical care, and transplantation, including metabolic and immunological complications after liver transplantation, infections and multidrug-resistant organisms in cirrhosis and transplant recipients, and outcomes of critically ill patients with liver disease.
Dr. Košuta is a member of several international societies, including EASL, AASLD, ILTS, ESICM, and serves on the steering committee of the ILTS Acute Liver Failure group. She is deeply committed to medical education, regularly teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students, mentoring junior clinicians and researchers, and contributing to national and international educational initiatives.
Anna Mrzljak
Anna Mrzljak, MD, PhD, FEBGH, FEBTM is a Professor of Internal Medicine at the School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Croatia, and a Consultant Hepatologist at the University Hospital Centre Zagreb, where she serves as Head of the Liver Transplantation Centre.
She is a member of the EASL Education Committee, with a focus on the training and development of future hepatologists. Her clinical and research interests centre on infections in liver disease and liver transplantation, including viral hepatitis, emerging and neglected hepatotropic viruses, transplant-associated infections, and host–pathogen interactions. She has led and contributed to numerous national and international research projects, with a translational approach bridging laboratory and clinical research. Professor Mrzljak is a Board Member of the European Union of Medical Specialists (UEMS) – Transplant Medicine and of ELITA (European Liver and Intestine Transplant Association) of the European Society for Organ Transplantation. She is actively involved in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education and has supervised multiple PhD candidates.
Neven Papić
Neven Papić, MD, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Zagreb School of Medicine and a consultant infectologist at the University Hospital for Infectious Diseases “Dr. Fran Mihaljević”, Zagreb, Croatia, where he serves as Head of the Department for Gastrointestinal Infections and Viral Hepatitis.
Building on his PhD work in transcriptomics and the role of liver cell subtypes in HCV infection, his research focuses on translational studies linking mechanistic insights with clinically relevant outcomes at the interface of infectious diseases and hepatology. Currently, he is the Principal Investigator of the SepsisFAT and SteatoCAP projects, exploring immunometabolic and host–pathogen interactions in severe infections and steatotic liver disease.
His broader clinical and research interests include severe bacterial infections, antimicrobial resistance, and infections in solid organ transplant recipients, and he is a member of the Liver Transplant Team at University Hospital Centre Zagreb. He is committed to medical education; he has organized professional schools and conferences, mentors junior clinicians and researchers, regularly presents at international meetings, and contributes to international educational initiatives.