Speakers in updating

Luca Elli is a gastroenterologist and expert in celiac disease. He is the Head of the Centre for Prevention and Diagnosis of Coeliac Disease at Fondazione IRCCS Ca Granda – Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, University of Milano, Italy. He has conducted extensive research on the clinical and etiopathogenic aspects of celiac disease and gluten-related disorders, focusing on the use of invasive and non-invasive endoscopy to manage and monitor patients with celiac disease.

Elli’s research has explored the role of serology in the diagnosis and follow-up of celiac disease, particularly the performance of tissue transglutaminase (tTG) antibodies in patients following a gluten-free diet and the association between tTG levels and complications of celiac disease. He has also investigated the use of tele-monitoring methods for celiac disease patients during the pandemic.

Professor Marios Hadjivassiliou is a Consultant Neurologist and the Academic Director of the Academic Department of Neurosciences, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. His primary research is in the neurological manifestations of gluten related disorders. His pioneering research resulted in defining previously unrecognized disease entities such as gluten ataxia, gluten encephalopathy and gluten neuropathy. He has published extensively on the subject. He runs a weekly gluten sensitivity/neurology and ataxia clinics and receives referrals from all over the UK and Internationally. He is a founding member of the Sheffield Institute of Gluten Related Disorders (SIGReD).

The fourth international Maki Celiac Disease Tampere Prize was awarded to Professor Peter HR Green, Phyllis & Ivan Seidenberg Professor of Medicine, Columbia University, New York.

Professor Green has decades of diverse clinical and translational research experience in such areas as the prevalence, diagnostics and disease patterns of celiac disease, diet and drug therapies, cost issues and comorbidities.

Green has published research results in the highest-impact scientific journals including The New England Journal of Medicine, Science, Gastroenterology and Gut as well as the Lancet and Nature series. He has also written books on celiac disease and gluten for lay audiences. Other scholars have cited his research more than 40,000 times.

Green is a doctor and researcher who was born in Australia and who currently resides in the United States. He studied medicine at the University of Sydney and has worked at, for example, Harvard University. He is currently a professor of medicine at Columbia University. A recipient of several significant research prizes, Green has also chaired the New York Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and North American Society for the Study of Celiac Disease associations.

Laura Kivelä, MD, PhD is an associate professor (docent) and senior researcher in the Celiac Disease Research Center (CeliRes), Tampere University and Tampere University Hospital, and a pediatric resident in the New Children’s Hospital, Helsinki University Hospital. She has worked as a postdoc researcher in the Department of Pediatric Research, University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital. Her research focuses especially on clinical aspects of celiac disease screening, diagnostics and follow-up, and she has >40 scientific publications. She is a member of Young Academy Finland and Finnish Celiac Society’s advisory board.

Alberto Rubio-Tapia, MD, is Director of the Celiac Disease Program, Section Director of Research for Gastroenterology, and Staff gastroenterologist at the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Alberto received his MD from Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City, Mexico. He did his internal medicine residency and gastroenterology fellowship at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, United States. He received a Certificate in clinical and translational science and completed the Clinician-Investigator program at the Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education, Rochester, Minnesota, United States.  His research interests cover epidemiology, quality of care, diagnosis, management, and outcomes of celiac disease and refractory celiac disease.

MD, PhD Teea Salmi is a Professor in Dermatology in Tampere University and Chief Physician in the Department of Dermatology, Tampere University Hospital, Finland. She is the director of Dermatitis Herpetiformis-study group in Celiac Disease Research Center, Tampere University. Her research aims to investigate pathogenesis of dermatitis herpetiformis and differences between dermatitis herpetiformis and other phenotypes of coeliac disease in terms of genetics, immunology, associated diseases and prognosis. Also, her research group’s studies focus on diagnostics and treatment of dermatitis herpetiformis. Prof Salmi is currently the president of Finnish Dermatological Society, board member of Nordic Dermatology Association (NDA) and NDA research committee chair. She is also a member of European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology autoimmune bullous skin diseases task force, European Dermatology Forum and Medical scientific advisory board of the Finnish Coeliac Society. HoH

Ludvig M. Sollid (MD, PhD) is a Professor at the University of Oslo and a Senior Consultant at the Oslo University Hospital – Rikshospitalet. He is also the Director of UiO FOCIS Center of Excellence. His research interests are focused around genetics and immunology of autoimmune diseases.

His group has made important contributions to the understanding of the molecular basis of celiac disease, in particular the role of HLA genes, the existence of gluten reactive (HLA-DQ restricted) T cells in the coeliac intestinal lesion, the identification of immunotoxic gluten peptide sequences and the involvement of the transglutaminase 2 in the pathogenesis of the disease. His group is currently working on the characterization of the antigen receptors of T cells and B cells that recognize the celiac disease relevant antigens gluten and transglutaminase 2. Sollid has been recognized for his scientific contributions by several awards, most notably the Research Council of Norway’s Møbius Prize for Outstanding Research, the Warren Prize for Excellence in Celiac Disease Research, the Rank Prize in Nutrition and the United European Gastroenterology Research Prize.

Professor Riccardo Troncone is Full Professor of Pediatrics at the Department of Medical Translational Sciences of the University Federico II, Naples. He is Director of the “European Laboratory for the Investigation of Food-Induced Diseases” at the University Federico II, Naples and holds a research position at the Institute of Protein Biochemistry of the Italian Research Council (IBP-CNR). He is Past President of the International Society for the Study of Coeliac Disease and of the European Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN). His research interests are focused mostly on clinical and immunological aspects of celiac disease. Professor Troncone has been awarded the 2024 Prize for Excellence in Celiac Disease Research by the Celiac Foundation.

Jason Tye-Din is a gastroenterologist who heads the Coeliac Research Laboratory at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia. His program focuses on understanding and testing gluten immunity in patients to advance the development of diagnostics, immunomonitoring tools and novel therapies for coeliac disease. His team collaborate closely with academic and industry partners and manage a clinical site focused on coeliac drug trials.

Dr. Elena Verdu is Professor in Medicine and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Microbial Therapeutics and Nutrition in Gastroenterology. She is the Director of the Farncombe Family Digestive Health Institute at McMaster University (from July 2024). Her research aims at deciphering the microbial metabolism of dietary antigens, such as gluten, and how that process prevents or promotes from the development of celiac disease.

Dr. Verdu obtained a medical degree in Argentina, trained as clinical research fellow at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland and pursued a Ph.D. degree in immunology and gnotobiology at the Czech Academy of Science. She is Senior Associate Editor (Basic Science) for the journal Gastroenterology, Board Member and Secretary of the International Society for the Study of Celiac Disease and serves in many American Gastroenterology Association Institute committees as Microbiome and Microbial Therapies and Basic & Clinical Intestinal Disorders sections.