Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is a chronic and progressive liver disorder affecting over 30% of the adult population worldwide. This disease is strongly associated with the metabolic syndrome and is characterised by excessive accumulation of triglycerides in the hepatocytes. It ranges from steatosis (MASL) to the active form steatohepatitis (MASH), and can progress to cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma, making it a leading cause of liver transplantation.
In this presentation, I will discuss how integrative multi-omics strategies - including genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics - can help us to understand the pathogenesis of MASLD, leading to non-invasive biomarker discovery. Furthermore, I will highlight how spatial omics identifies the macrophage heterogeneity in the progression from MASL to MASH.
About the speaker
Olivier is a Tenure Track Professor at the Translational Cell & Tissue Research lab, Department of Imaging and Pathology at the KU Leuven in Belgium. He obtained his PhD in Molecular and Stem Cell Medicine at the KU Leuven, investigating the role of hepatic progenitor cells in liver regeneration and carcinogenesis. His postdoctoral work at Newcastle University in the UK, aimed to understand the pathophysiology of Metabolic dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD) and to examine the determinants of individual risk for disease progression by using a "multi-omics" translational-science approach (Govaere et al Science TM 2020). His work as a senior research associate at Newcastle University primarily focused on the development, validation, and qualification of improved biomarkers, as part of the European IMI2 LITMUS consortium (Govaere et al Nature Metabolism 2023).
In 2022, Dr Govaere started his own research group at the KU Leuven, Belgium. His team currently works on immunometabolism in steatotic liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma, using spatial multi-omics.
