Beyond Celiac just announced their 2nd Annual Celiac Disease Research Symposium, on Wednesday, October 10, 2018 at 6:00-7:30 PM EST. While the event is in Philly once again, you can also live-stream the event for free!

The moderator will be Beyond Celiac CSO Marie Robert, MD is a nationally recognized gastrointestinal (GI) liver and pancreatic surgical pathologist with 25 years of experience in clinical diagnosis, teaching and collaborative scientific endeavors across a wide spectrum of diseases, including inflammatory and neoplastic conditions of the GI tract.  I had a chance to listen to her at Digestive Disease Week and thought she was amazingly well spoken, brilliant, and pretty much my new hero.

Check out her recently-published Statement on Best Practices in the Use of Pathology as a Diagnostic Tool for Celiac Disease: A Guide for Clinicians and Pathologists in the American Journal of Surgical Pathology. In addition to her post as the Beyond Celiac CSO, Dr. Robert is also Professor of Pathology and Medicine at Yale University School of Medicine. If I were you, I’d listen just to hear from her!

Speakers

Here are the details about this year’s speakers – straight out of Digestive Disease Week. I’ve seen Dr. Kelly  and Dr. Leonard in real life and they’re incredible. Seriously amazing assets to the celiac disease community. We’re really lucky to have access to these!

Ciaran Kelly, MD

Ciarán P Kelly, MD, is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of Gastroenterology Training at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Dr. Kelly earned his medical degree from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland where he was a Foundation Scholar and recipient of numerous academic awards. Dr Kelly has also received postgraduate clinical and research awards from the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America, the American Gastroenterological Association and the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Kelly has engaged in patient care and research in celiac disease for more than 20 years. In 2004 he was a founder of the Celiac Center at BIDMC and continues to serve as its Medical Director. In 2013 he co-founded the Celiac Research Program at Harvard Medical School which brings together celiac disease researchers and educators from Harvard teaching hospitals.

Dr. Kelly is an internationally recognized expert in the diagnosis and management of celiac disease and, in his clinical practice, specializes in difficult-to-treat enteropathies. He also leads research programs on the pathogenesis of celiac disease, its diagnosis and new approaches to treatment. Dr. Kelly is the author of more than 250 clinical and basic research book chapters, invited reviews, and original research articles.

Maureen M. Leonard, MD, MMSc

Maureen Leonard, MD, MMSc, is the Clinical Director of the Center for Celiac Research and Treatment at MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC) and an Instructor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School (HMS). She sees adult and pediatric patients with celiac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity, dermatitis herpetiformis, gluten ataxia and other gluten-related disorders. Dr. Leonard obtained her medical degree from New York Medical College, completed her residency in general pediatrics at Tufts Medical Center and completed her fellowship in Pediatric Gastroenterology at MGHfC. An associate investigator at the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at HMS, Dr. Leonard received a Master’s Degree in Clinical and Translational Investigation from HMS.

Dr. Leonard’s research is focused on predicting and preventing celiac disease through precision medicine. Her current work includes identifying biomarkers that can predict intestinal healing in patients with celiac disease, building translational models capable of predicting autoimmune disease in high-risk individuals and working with Dr. Alessio Fasano on the NIH-funded Celiac Disease; Genomic, Environmental, Microbiome and Metabolomic Study (CDGEMM). Dr. Leonard currently holds funding from the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at Harvard and the NIH (FDK109620A).

Stephen D Miller, PhD

Stephen Miller, PhD is the Judy E. Gugenheim Research Professor of Microbiology-Immunology and Director of the Interdepartmental Immunobiology Center at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Dr. Miller is internationally recognized for his research on pathogenesis and regulation of autoimmune diseases. He has published over 400 journal articles, reviews and book chapters and has trained multiple generations of scientists. His work has significantly enhanced understanding of immune inflammatory processes underlying chronic autoimmune disease employing animal models of multiple sclerosis (MS), Type 1 diabetes (T1D) and celiac disease and treatment of established T cell-mediated autoimmune diseases using antigen-specific immune tolerance.

His current work is geared towards mechanistic understanding and clinical translation of the use of antigen-linked biodegradable PLG nanoparticles for the treatment of human immune-mediated diseases including autoimmunity, allergy and tissue/organ transplantation.