GASL 2018

Dear Colleagues, dear GASL members,

the German Association for the Study of the Liver (GASL) was established by Professor Karl-Hermann Meyer zum Büschenfelde in 1985 as a concentrated interdisciplinary meeting of basic scientists, physicians and surgeons with an interest in the liver and liver disease. The meeting has a unique character as it is very succinct, and consists only of original novel contributions submitted by young scientists. In the past 33 years the meeting has evolved as the key German meeting for new results in basic and clinical hepatology, and has helped to build an excellent scientific community in liver research in Germany. It is a pleasure and honor to welcome you to the 34^th annual GASL meeting here in Hamburg, to be held in the central building of the University.

The GASL Annual Meeting is traditionally accompanied by a Research Workshop which this year deals with “Liver-Gut-Microbiome-Interactions” and which is organized by the Falk Foundation. In this workshop, outstanding experts will provide the most promising upcoming hepatological topics for discussion with the audience. The workshop will be framed by scientific poster sessions on both days, so that hopefully a fruitful discussion will come up between young investigators and internationally respected experts. Many thanks to Mrs. Ursula Falk and the Falk Foundation.

I cordially welcome our keynote speaker, Professor Ralf Bartenschlager, Head of the Department “Molecular Virology” at the University Hospital in Heidelberg, Germany. He will give a state-of-the-art lecture about “Advances in Viral Hepatitis”. Prof. Bartenschlager is a global outstanding scientist in the field of molecular virology of HCV. His main focus is on viral replication, virus – host cell interaction and innate immune responses induced by infections and viral countermeasures.

I would like to express my warm and sincere thanks to the many people who made this meeting possible: to our sponsors for their generous support, to our participants for their contribution, to the members of the program committee for making the right choices and to my local organizing team for lending their helping hands. My special thanks go to Professor Verena Keitel, the scientific secretary of the GASL.

The Zeitschrift für Gastroenterologie has for more than ten years now issued a liver disease issue on the occasion of the annual GASL meeting. This yearly focus issue has become another strong tradition in German hepatology, and I am very grateful to the many authors who have contributed to this issue, which will hopefully bring many aspects of liver disease to the wide readership of the Zeitschrift für Gastroenterologie. In addition the abstracts of the meeting are published online both by Thieme and on the homepage of the GASL meeting (http://www.gasl-jahrestagung.de).

Yours faithfully,

Prof. Dr. Ansgar W. Lohse

GASL President 2017/2018

Prof. Dr. Ansgar W. Lohse