Editorial introductions

Abstract

Current Opinion in Organ Transplantation was launched in 1996. It is part of a successful series of review journals whose unique format is designed to provide a systematic and critical assessment of the literature as presented in the many primary journals. The field of organ transplantation is divided into 18 sections that are reviewed once a year. Each section is assigned a Section Editor, a leading authority in the area, who identifies the most important topics at that time. Here we are pleased to introduce the Section Editors for this issue. SECTION EDITORS R. Mark GhobrialR. Mark GhobrialAfter receiving his bachelor of medicine and bachelor of surgery degrees from Cairo University Medical School, Egypt, Dr. Ghobrial completed several surgical residencies in the United Kingdom and the United States. While a surgery resident at University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, Texas, he completed a PhD in Immunology at the UT Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in 1994. After residency, he accepted a position as Clinical Instructor in the Department of Surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and was awarded a dumont-UCLA transplant fellowship. He received his full professorship in 2005 and served as the Director of the Pancreas Transplant Program and Living Donor Liver Transplantation, and Service Director for Liver, Pancreas, and Small Bowel Transplantation. He was recruited to the Houston Methodist Hospital, Texas, USA in 2008. Florence LacailleFlorence LacailleIn her eyes, Dr Lacaille is a pediatrician who was trained in the most beautiful city in the world (Paris!) as a modest resident in Pr Alagille's unit among others. She travelled to Montreal, Canada, for a fellowship in paediatric gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition. Back in Paris, she established the unit of pediatric hepatology and liver transplantation in Necker-Enfants malades in 1992. The first world intestinal transplantation had been performed in this institution in 1987, and after a difficult start, a transplantation program developed from 1994. From 2004, Dr Lacaille cared for children who had undergone combined liver-small bowel transplantation and those who endured isolated small bowel transplantation. Dr Lacaille was also the co-editor of a French textbook on paediatric hepatology, with a new edition currently in preparation. She and her colleagues of the Network for Intestinal failure and Transplantation in Europe (NITE) organized two European workshops on intestinal transplantation in children in 2012 and 2014. Dr Lacaille also organized the ESPGHAN Summer school of Hepatology in 2012 and sat on the Council of ESPGHAN (European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition) and ITA (Intestinal Transplant Association). Dr Lacaille is currently Chairperson of the Young Investigator Forum (YIF) of ESPGHAN. Together with the President, George Mazariegos, and the Council of ITA, she is organizing the next ITA meeting in Paris in 2019. Norah A. TerraultNorah A. TerraultDr Norah A. Terrault is a Professor of Medicine and Surgery and Director of the Viral Hepatitis Center at the University of California, San Francisco, USA. She received her MD from the University of Alberta, USA, and completed fellowships at the University of Toronto, Canada, before joining the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research focuses on the natural history and treatment of viral hepatitis and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, especially in patients with cirrhosis and liver transplant recipients. She has conducted multiple clinical trials related to preventing and treating chronic hepatitis C and B, and is site PI for the NIH-supported HBV Clinical Research Network (HBRN) and NASH Clinical Research Network. She has authored over 250 peer-reviewed manuscripts, editorials, invited reviews, and chapters and is an Associate Editor for Hepatology and past Deputy Editor for Liver Transplantation. She has served on the AASLD governing board and as Councilor on the IASL governing board.