New SciCom member

Isabelle Cleynen has been an individual member of ECCO since 2012 and has contributed to several ECCO Activities and Initiatives over the years. She was part of the Y-ECCO Committee from 2014 to 2018, including one year as Chair. In fact, she was the first basic scientist to be nominated into Y-ECCO, and together with her Y-ECCO Colleagues at the time, she initiated the Y-ECCO Basic Science Course, which is still a well-appreciated part of the yearly ECCO Congress. Isabelle is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at KU Leuven in the Netherlands, where she leads the Laboratory for Complex Genetics. Her research group is interested in identifying genetic and transcriptomic markers that influence complex disease development and disease subtypes. She is also a member of the Management Committee of the International IBD Genetics Consortium (IIBDGC). As a member of SciCom, Isabelle will work on further improving the ECCO Activities in relation to basic science topics with the aim of ensuring that ECCO remains an attractive place not only for clinicians and clinical researchers but also for basic scientists working in the field.

SciCom sends Michael Scharl great thanks and best wishes as he rotates out of SciCom at the end of his 2019–2022 mandate.

Michael Scharl is currently Lead Physician in the Clinic and Head of Research for the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, as well as Head of the Center for Translational Microbiome Research, at the University Hospital Zürich, Switzerland. Having begun his academic career at the University of Regensburg, he is now an assistant professor at the University of Zürich. With more than 15 years’ experience in IBD research, Michael is an expert on the role of protein tyrosine phosphatases in IBD as well as the pathophysiology of Crohn’s Disease-associated fistulae. Michael has been active in the ECCO Scientific Community as a Y-ECCO Member and an author at the 5th and 7th ECCO Scientific Workshops, and he took part in the ECCO UR-CARE: Y-ECCO Validation Study. He has also received multiple ECCO Grants and Awards. Bringing his experience to bear in SciCom, Michael enthusiastically supported the preparation of the scientific programme at the ECCO Congresses and SciCom’s initiatives “ECCO Scientific Workshops” and “ECCO CONFER Cases”, as well as the ECCO Fellowships, Grants and Travel Awards.