Editorial introductions

Abstract

Current Opinion in Gastroenterology was launched in 1985. It is one 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 gastroenterology is divided into 12 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 one of the Section Editors for this issue. SECTION EDITORS Claudio FiocchiClaudio FiocchiDr Fiocchi is originally from Rome, Italy. He graduated from the Santa Casa de Misericordia School of Medicine in São Paulo, Brazil, and moved to the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, where he received additional training in internal medicine, gastroenterology and basic immunology. Dr Fiocchi is currently Professor of Molecular Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio and Professor of Pathology and Pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio, USA. In addition, he is a Staff Member in the Departments of Pathobiology, Lerner Research Institute, and Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Digestive Disease and Surgery Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Dr Fiocchi has published numerous papers and has served or serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including Gastroenterology, American Journal of Physiology, Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, Journal of Crohn's & Colitis, Current Opinion in Gastroenterology, and Digestive and Liver Disease. He has been or is a member of numerous study sections of the National Institutes of Health and the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America. He received the prestigious MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health, and the Clifford and Jane Anthony Chair in Digestive Disease Research and Education. In addition, he is the recipient of the Premier Physician Award and the Henry Janowitz Lifetime Achievement Award in Inflammatory Bowel Disease from the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America, and the International Herbert Falk Award, Germany. He is also Honorary Foreign Member of the Brazilian Academy of Medicine. Dr Fiocchi's research is focused on the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease. Studies include the identification of mechanisms of mucosal T-cell death and survival in gut inflammation, investigation of tolerance of mucosal T-cells for the autologous enteric flora and its possible loss in IBD, characterization of the interactions between mucosal T-cells and endothelial and stromal cells, and the study of immune-driven angiogenesis and fibrogenesis in intestinal inflammation. Stuart J. SpechlerStuart J. SpechlerStuart J. Spechler, MD is Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology at the Dallas VA Medical Center, Professor of Medicine, and holder of the Berta M. and Cecil O. Patterson Chair in Gastroenterology at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, USA. He is a graduate of Boston University School of Medicine, USA, and he spent many years working in Boston, both at Boston University and at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, USA, and Harvard Medical School, USA, where he was the Director of the Center for Swallowing Disorders from 1990 to 1997. He has been in Dallas on the faculty of UT Southwestern Medical Center since 1997. Dr Spechler's research has focused primarily on disorders of the esophagus, especially gastroesophageal reflux disease and its complications. He chaired the VA Cooperative Study on gastroesophageal reflux disease that was conducted in the 1980 s, and he now chairs a new VA Cooperative Study on the treatment of GERD that is refractory to treatment with proton pump inhibitors. Dr Spechler has published more than 300 scientific reports, editorials, review articles, and book chapters on esophageal disorders. He is perhaps best known for his work in the areas of GERD, Barrett's esophagus and, most recently on eosinophilic esophagitis. Dr Spechler has served on the editorial boards of numerous journals including Gastroenterology, Gut, Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and Diseases of the Esophagus, and he has served as Chair of the Gastroenterology Teaching Project and the Esophago-gastro-duodenal Section of the American Gastroenterological Association.