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Prof. Dr. Marc Ferrante is full professor at KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium) and staff member of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University Hospitals Leuven since 2012. He is a lecturer for the students of Biomedical Sciences and Medicine.

Marc Ferrante introduced the ex vivo intestinal organoid technique at KU Leuven. He performed research on the influence of microbiota on intestinal stem cell behaviour and differentiation in patients with IBD. Besides, he also started a research line on patient reported outcomes, quality indicators and eligibility criteria for clinical trials.

Marc Ferrante published more than 380 papers in high ranked gastroenterology journals (H index: 80). He was awarded as Rising Star in Gastroenterology at the European Congress of Gastroenterology in 2014.

Marc Ferrante holds a basic-clinical research position at the Flemish Foundation for Scientific Research (FWO Vlaanderen). He is Secretary of the Belgian IBD Research and Development (BIRD) group. He has been Chair of both the Young, Clinical and Scientific Committee of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO).

Gionata Fiorino is a Senior Consultant Gastroenterologist and a Clinical Researcher, Head of the IBD Clinical Trial Unit at San Camillo-Forlanini Hospital in Rome, Italy. He is also Scientific Consultant at the San Camillo-Forlanini Hospital in Rome, Italy.

He got his MD degree in 2004, his specialty in Gastroenterology in 2009, and PhD degree in 2013. Since he was a medical student, IBD have been his main interest. His main fields of research are new molecules for the treatment of IBD, non-invasive diagnosis and monitoring of IBD, quality of life in IBD, and quality of care in IBD. He has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers, and participated in more than 100 clinical trials at national and international level. He founded Y-ECCO in 2006, he has been member of the GuiCom and the ECCO Confer Steering Committee, and has participated in several ECCO Consensus. He has been ECCO Educational Officer from 2023 to 2026, member of the ECCO e-learning taskforce, and he is currently the leader of the E-Quality project.

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Professor Kaija-Leena Kolho is a pediatric gastroenterologist, currently serving as Vice Dean and pediatric professor at the University of Helsinki and Head Physician at Helsinki University Hospital, Finland.

Her main research interest is inflammatory bowel disease, particularly in monitoring disease activity, assessing therapeutic responses, and the gut microbiota in these conditions and during infancy. She has authored more than 300 original peer-reviewed articles, several other articles, and book chapters, and supervised several PhD studies.

She has served as chair of the Educational Committee of the Finnish Society of Gastroenterology and the Society of Digestive Surgery, as a member of the pediatric committee of ECCO (P-ECCO), as the representative of ESPGHAN (European Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition) on the Scientific Committee of UEG (United European Gastroenterology), and as a member of the IBD study group Porto group of ESPGHAN. She was the local Chair of the 57^th Annual Meeting of ESPGHAN, 14-17.5.205 in Helsinki, Finland, with more than 5,800 participants from 111 countries.

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