IBD Training Academy

Professor Taku Kobayashi
Centre for Advanced IBD Research and Treatment, Kitasato University Kitasato
Institute Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

Taku Kobayashi is Vice Director and Associate Professor at the Centre for Advanced IBD Research and Treatment, Kitasato University Kitasato Institute Hospital, Tokyo, Japan. He is Director of the International Exchange Committee of the Japanese Society of IBD and a Clinical Research Committee member for the Asian Organization for Crohn’s and Colitis. He serves as a councillor for several Japanese gastroenterology societies. His current projects include global, prospective, randomised controlled trials and the development of prospective registries of Japanese patients with IBD.

Dr Gareth Parkes
Royal London Hospital, UK

Gareth Parkes is Clinical Lead for Gastroenterology at the Royal London Hospital, UK. His interests include IBD clinical trials, the role of the microbiota and probiotics, and the use of technology in the IBD clinic. He has sat on the British Society of Gastroenterology IBD Committee and has a range of publications in the fields of IBD, gastrointestinal microbiota and irritable bowel syndrome. He is Co-Founder and Medical Director of Ampersand Health, which developed the award-winning app ‘My IBD Care’, using digital technology and behavioural science to improve patients’ lives.

Professor Stefan Schreiber
Christian-Albrecht University, Kiel, Germany

Stefan Schreiber gained his medical degree at the University of Hamburg. After two fellowships he joined the Department of Gastroenterology at Charité University Hospital, Berlin. In 1996 he became Associate Professor at Christian-Albrecht University. He became full Professor of Medicine in 1999; in 2004 he became Director of the Department of Internal Medicine I and head of the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology at Kiel University. His research interests span the genetics and pathophysiology of intestinal inflammation, IBD therapy development and human ageing. He has authored more than 1000 original publications.

Professor Séverine Vermeire
University Hospitals Leuven, KU Leuven, Belgium

Séverine Vermeire trained at KU Leuven, the National University of Asunción, Paraguay, the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Oxford, UK, and Montreal General Hospital, Canada. Since 2003, she has been a member of the Gastroenterology Department at University Hospitals Leuven and professor of medicine at KU Leuven. She became head of the Department of Chronic Diseases and Metabolism at KU Leuven in 2016. Her work has led to more than 500 peer-reviewed articles and focusses on the role of the microbiome, genetic susceptibility in IBD and signatures predictive of therapy response.