Upcoming Center Seminars
October 2026
Date:
Monday, October 26, 2026, 12:00 – 1:00 pm, Pacific Time, Hybrid Meeting
Location: Leichtag - 107 (Lecture Room)
Online: Zoom Meeting
Password: 112376
Speaker:
Takeshi Saito, MD, PhD, AGAF, FAASLD
Veronica P. Budnick Chair in Liver Disease
Professor of Medicine, Division of Gastrointestinal and Liver Diseases
Professor of Immunology & Immune Therapeutics, and Pathology
Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA
Title: Hepatocyte-Intrinsic Humoral Factors Self-Assemble into an Autocrine Cell Identity Determining Niche
Speaker’s Research Interests: Cell fate determination and identity preservation depend on interactions with tissue-specific microenvironmental niches. Loss of these microenvironmental cues is considered a major driver of the rapid decline in authentic cellular characteristics during in vitro culture. However, primary human hepatocytes exhibit a robust capacity to preserve identity marker gene expression, authentic morphology, and specialized functions. This observation challenges the prevailing view that maintenance of hepatocyte identity requires a tissue-specific niche provided primarily by hepatic non-parenchymal cells. In this seminar, Dr. Saito will address a fundamental question in liver cell biology: how do mature hepatocytes preserve their highly specialized identity within a mechanically and molecularly dynamic tissue environment? To address this question, his laboratory leverages its extensive expertise in primary human hepatocyte culture and humanized liver chimeric mouse models. Beyond this work, his laboratory applies these human-based experimental platforms to mechanistic studies of viral hepatitis, cholestatic disease, and metabolic liver disease to develop physiologically relevant and predictive disease models and identify novel therapeutic targets, with the ultimate goal of mitigating the burden of liver disease.
November 2026
Date:
Monday, November 30, 2026, 12:00 – 1:00 pm, Pacific Time, Hybrid Meeting
Location: Leichtag - 107 (Lecture Room)
Speaker:
Lee A. Denson, MD
Professor of Pediatrics
Director, Schubert-Martin IBD Center
Director, Digestive Health Center
Research Director, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Cincinnati, OH
Title: TBD
Speaker’s Research Interests: TBD
December 2026
Date:
Monday, December 14, 2026, 12:00 – 1:00 pm, Pacific Time, Hybrid Meeting
Location: Leichtag - 107 (Lecture Room)
Speaker:
Stephen A. Duncan, DPhil
Professor and Chair
Department: Regenerative Medicine & Cell Biology
Programs: Cell Injury, End Organ Disease
Cell Models Core
Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC)
Charleston, SC
Title: TBD
Speaker’s Research Interests: TBD
December 2026
Date:
Wednesday, December 16, 2026, 3:30 – 4:30 pm, Pacific Time, Hybrid Meeting
Location: MET Lower Auditorium
Speaker:
Hans Clevers, PhD
Hubrecht Institute
Netherlands
Title: TBD
Speaker’s Research Interests: TBD
January 2027
Date:
Monday, January 25, 2027, 12:00 – 1:00 pm, Pacific Time, Hybrid Meeting
Location: Leichtag - 107 (Lecture Room)
Speaker:
Scott T. Magness, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Joint Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, NCSU/UNC-CH
Dept. of Cell & Molecular Physiology
Director, CGIBD Advanced Analytics Core
School of Medicine
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Title: TBD
Speaker’s Research Interests: TBD
March 2027
Date:
Monday, March 22, 2027, 12:00 – 1:00 pm, Pacific Time, Hybrid Meeting
Location: TBD
Speaker:
Anna Suk-Fong Lok, MD
Dame Sheila Sherlock, Distinguished University Professor of Hepatology and Internal Medicine
Alice Lohrman Andrews Research Professor of Hepatology
Assistant Dean for Clinical Research
University of Michigan Medical School
Ann Arbor, MI
Title: TBD
Speaker’s Research Interests: TBD
March 2027
Date:
Wednesday, March 24, 2027, 7:30 – 8:30 am, Pacific Time, Hybrid Meeting
Location: TBD
Speaker:
Reza Shaker, MD
Professor
Department of Medicine
Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Medical College of Wisconsin
Milwaukee, WI
Title: TBD
Speaker’s Research Interests: TBD
April 2027
Date:
Wednesday, April 28, 2027, 7:30 – 8:30 am, Pacific Time, Hybrid Meeting
Location: TBD
Speaker:
Suthat Liangpunsakul, MD, MPH
Professor of Medicine
Professor of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology & Pharmacology
Associate Chief of Staff for Research, Roudebush Veterans Administration Medical Center
Indiana University School of Medicine
Indianapolis, IN
Title: TBD
Speaker’s Research Interests: TBD
May 2027
Date:
Monday, May 24, 2027, 12:00 – 1:00 pm, Pacific Time, Hybrid Meeting
Location: Leichtag - 107 (Lecture Room)
Speaker:
Arielle Klepper, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Medicine
Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology
University of California, San Francisco
Title: TBD
Speaker’s Research Interests: TBD