Meet the faculty - Faculty Bios
Francisco Baldaque-Silva graduated from Porto University in Portugal and did the specialization in Gastroenterology at Santo António University Hospital in Porto, Portugal, and Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden.
He did his PhD at Karolinska Institute, entitled “Aspects on endoscopic characterization and clinical management of Barrett’s esophagus”. Since then, Dr. Baldaque-Silva has been engaged in clinical research mainly on Barrett’s esophagus, endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) and endoscopic ultrasound (EUS). He created new endoscopic techniques such as Transillumination for POEM, Topflight ESD, yo-yo ESD traction technic, steroid lifting method and was the first to describe ESD in an outpatient basis. Dr. Baldaque-Silva is developing a new device for EUS cytologic diagnosis of pancreatic cysts in collaboration with Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
He as co-authored the current ESGE guidelines for management of Barrett’s esophagus , the Swedish guidelines for upper gastrointestinal lesions, and is the PI on several prospective studies on endoscopy.
Currently, Dr. Baldaque-Silva is the Head of Gastroenterology and Head of Advanced Endoscopy Center Carlos Moreira da Silva at Pedro Hispano Hospital in Matosinhos, Portugal. He is also Senior Consultant at Center for Upper Digestive Diseases at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm and researcher at Karolinska Institute, in Stockholm.
Max Barret is a French gastroenterologist at the Cochin Hospital (Assistance Publique – Hopitaux de Paris) and teaches Gastroenterology and Gastrointestinal Endoscopy at the Université Paris-Cité.
He was trained in gastroenterology, esophagology, diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy at the Georges Pompidou European Hospital, Academic Medical Center from Amsterdam, and Cochin Hospital, and was appointed full professor in 2020.
His clinical activity encompasses all the domains of esophagology, from the management of patients with precancerous states or early neoplasia, esophageal strictures, chronic esophageal diseases (among which eosinophilic esophagitis), esophageal motility disorders, and gastro-intestinal reflux disease. He conducted translational research works in animal models on the mechanisms of esophageal wound healing and post endoscopic stricture prevention. His clinical research focuses on Barrett’s esophagus, esophageal cancer, particularly organ preservation strategies for early esophageal neoplasia.
Raf Bisschops obtained his Medical Degree in 1997, a PhD degree and certification in gastroenterology in 2005 at the University of Leuven. He is head of clinic and full professor at the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), faculty of medicine. He is director of endoscopy since 2013. His main interest is advanced endoscopic imaging and therapeutics for premalignant conditions (Barrett, HNPCC, colitis), artificial intelligence and quality in endoscopy. He was co-editor of the journal Endoscopy between 2011 and 2020. He was the president of the Belgian society of Gastrointestinal endoscopy between 2019-2021. Within the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE), he is currently the Secretary General, and served as chairman of the ESGE quality committee and chairman of the ESGE curriculum working group.
James Catton has been substantively employed as a consultant upper GI and General surgery at the Nottingham University Hospital City campus since May 2010.
The majority of his workload involves care of patients with Upper GI malignancy and complex benign upper oesophago-gastric conditions including Achalasia and POEM procedures.
He is the Endoscopy Lead for AUGIS ( Association of Upper GI Surgeons) and their representative on the BSG endoscopy committee.
Andy Cole qualified from Cambridge and University College Hospital, London. He did his post graduate training in Bristol, Dunedin (New Zealand) and Nottingham.
Dr Andy Cole is a Consultant Gastroenterologist at Royal Derby Teaching Hospital.
His clinical and research interests are in therapeutic endoscopy, EUS and inflammatory bowel disease. He has previously been President of the Midlands Gastroenterology Society and the Derby Medical Society and secretary to the UK&I EUS users group. He has served as Upper GI cancer lead for Derby Cancer Centre.
Over the last decade he has worked as the lead clinician for the Derby spoke of the Nottingham-mid Trent service for Barrett's endo-therapy.
He as been an active and very valued participant in the Nottingham Barrett’s Endotherapy course since the very beginning.
Helen Coleman is Lead of the Cancer Epidemiology Research Group at the Centre for Public Health at Queen's University Belfast. The Cancer Epidemiology Research Group includes ten academics and approximately 20 postgraduate research students and postdoctoral research fellows as of early 2024. She is also Deputy Director of the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry.
Professor Coleman’s research mostly focuses on the epidemiology and early detection of gastrointestinal cancers and premalignant conditions. She has published over 120 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals, in addition to several book chapters, blogs and Northern Ireland Cancer Registry audit reports. Helen has also supervised 16 postgraduate research students to completion, and is currently supervising six PhD students (three as primary supervisor).
Professor Coleman currently holds a Cancer Research UK Career Establishment Award, which began in 2018 and aims to investigate the ‘Epidemiology and molecular pathology epidemiology of Barrett's oesophagus and oesophageal adenocarcinoma in the modern treatment era’. Helen has recently been elected as a member of the BSG Oesophageal Section, and previously served as a committee member for the Ulster Society of Gastroenterology.
Anjan Dhar is Professor of Medicine at Teesside University and Consultant Luminal Gastroenterologist at Darlington Memorial and Bishop Auckland Hospitals in County Durham. He graduated from the University of Delhi MBBS, with a Presidential Gold Medal and completed his Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology fellowships at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi with a doctoral DM degree, and a MD thesis in Radiation Induced proctopathy. He came to the UK as a Commonwealth Fellow for IBD research with Professor Derek Jewell at Oxford University. He underwent advanced Gastroenterology and Endoscopy training in the UK at the University of Oxford and the University College London Hospitals working with Professors Stuart Bloom and Laurence Lovat. He was appointed as a Consultant in Co. Durham in 2003, member of the academic faculty at Durham University (2010-18) and Professor of Medicine at Teesside University in 2019.
His research interests in Luminal Gastroenterology include - Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Oesophageal diseases (Eosinophilic oesophagitis, reflux disease and Barrett’s oesophagus) and advanced therapeutic endoscopy (EMR, RFA, POEM and ESG). He is a National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Clinician Investigator and is involved in several national and international clinical trials at County Durham (over 20 clinical trials completed in the last 20 years, currently involved with 8 clinical trials).
He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, American Gastroenterology Association Fellow and a life member of the Indian Society of Gastroenterology. He is a recipient of the British Society of Gastroenterology Endoscopy Advanced Endoscopy travelling fellowship to Charleston (2008) and Tokyo (2010) and the BSG Service Success commendations (2021, 2022). He is an elected member of the Oesophageal Section, the IBD Section and the Clinical Research Group for IBD at the British Society of Gastroenterology. He was the Chair of the Eosinophilic Oesophagitis Guideline Group of the BSG. He is the current Chair of the Education Committee of the BSG, previous Deputy Chair of Education (2021-23), and was elected to BSG Council in 2022.
He has over 120 publications in peer reviewed international GI journals and is a reviewer to many GI Journals. His h-index is 31(2023), with over 4000 citations.
Massi di Pietro qualified from Federico II University of Naples, Italy and obtained an MD at the Institute of Molecular Cancer Research (University of Zurich, Switzerland).
He is Senior Clinical Investigator Scientist at the Early Cancer Institute, University of Cambridge and Honorary Consultant Gastroenterologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, where he provides regional referral for endoscopic treatment of pre-cancerous and early malignant conditions of the upper GI tract, including endoscopic mucosal resection, endoscopic submucosal dissection and Radiofrequency Ablation. Dr di Pietro has a research interest in oesophageal and gastric pathologies, including Barrett’s oesophagus, oesophageal cancer and hereditary gastric cancer. In particular, his scientific focus is in advanced endoscopic imaging, key performance indicators in UGI endoscopy and molecular biomarkers for cancer risk stratification. He has co-authored the current BSG, NICE and ESGE guidelines for management of Barrett’s oesophagus and the International Guidelines for the management of Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer. He is lead on several prospective endoscopy trials for the early detection of upper GI cancer.
Gloria Fernández-Esparrach is an accredited researcher at IDIBAPS, Assistant Professor at the University of Barcelona and consultant at the Endoscopy Unit in Hospital Clínic of Barcelona, where she works in the field of advanced diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy. In the last 10 years she has focused her research on CRC diagnosis and prevention using new technologies and AI. She has a long record of publications in high impact journals where she has proposed novel polyp localization methods [WM-DOVA], CAI systems for polyp diagnosis [CADx] with comparable accuracy to endoscopists, and AI-based polyp re-identification methods. She has investigated new technologies for CRC diagnosis, such as microwave-based colonoscopy and confocal microscopy. In 2019 she co-founded the spin-off MiWEndo Solutions.
Dr. Fernández-Esparrach has expertise in the management of BE (endoscopic surveillance and ablative treatments as radiofrequency, cryotherapy, EMR and ESD). She has recently participated in the last update of the ESGE guideline on BE and has written original articles and reviews in Spanish journals.
Michal F. Kaminski is a graduate of the Medical University of Warsaw, Poland and now is Deputy Director of the Department of Gastroenterological Oncology and Head of Endoscopy Unit at the Maria-Sklodowska-Curie Memorial Cancer Center and Institute of Oncology, Warsaw, Poland. He is also appointed at the Medical Center for Postgraduate Education, Warsaw, Poland and Institute of Health and Society, Oslo, Norway.
Most of his time he dedicates to research and education in the field of quality of endoscopy, endoscopic treatment of GI cancer and colorectal cancer screening. He serves as PI or Co-PI for numerous international randomized controlled trials in the field of GI cancer screening and therapeutic endoscopy.
He is Head of the Quality Section and Vice Head of the Endoscopy Section of Polish Society of Gastroenterology and European Chair of Colorectal Cancer Screening Committee of World Endoscopy Organization. He is also Chair of the Warsaw Live Endoscopy Workshop (www.wlendoscopy.pl/en), the largest live endoscopy event in Central-Eastern Europe.
He is in the international editorial boards of Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, Best Practice and Research Clinical Gastroenterology, Gastrointestinal Oncology: Management and Care journals.
Roberta Maselli got her degree in Medicine and Surgery and later the specialty in General Surgery at “Sapienza” University of Rome, Italy. She attended a one year fellowship in Yokohama, Japan under the direction of Professors Haruhiro Inoue and Shin-ei Kudo and later in Mumbai, India directed by Dr. Amit Maydeo.
Since September, 2015 Dr. Maselli has been at the Endoscopic Unit of Humanitas Research Hospital, Rozzano, Milan, Italy, as the Director of Adavanced Therapeutic Endoscopy Program. She is now covering also the role of Assistant Professor in Gastroenterology in Humanitas University, Milan.
Roberta has authored more than 50 papers published in recognized international scientific journals. She is member of the Italian Society of Digestive Endoscopy (SIED), European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) and American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE). She is one of the founders and part of the board of WIE, Women in Endoscopy Group.
She has extensive experience and committment in Education, being invited in several international workshop and hands-on training (ex vivo and in vivo) mainly on advanced therapeutic endoscopy, ESD and third-space endoscopy.
Guiomar Moral works as Clinical and Research Fellow in Advanced Upper GI Endoscopy at the Nottingham University Hospitals since June 2021. Her main research interests, training and work are focused on advanced endoscopic imaging, early Upper GI neoplasia diagnosis and minimally invasive endoscopic therapy of early Upper GI cancer.
She is also actively involved in the clinical and research work related to the use of the Cytosponge in Barrett’s oesophagus (NHS England Pilot and DELTA and PROBAN studies) and artificial intelligence in Barrett’s oesophagus (CAD study).
She qualified from the University Miguel Hernández of Elche, Alicante, Spain in 2016. She completed her formal training in Gastroenterology and Hepatology in the Hospital Universitario Clínico San Carlos in Madrid, Spain, and holds an official title as Specialist in Gastroenterology and Hepatology from May 2021.
During her official training in Gastroenterology and Hepatology she attended a Therapeutic Endoscopy course at the Minimally Invasive Surgery Centre Jesús Usón (Cáceres, Spain) and a Barrett’s Academic Hands-on course (Ruber International Hospital, Madrid, Spain) in 2020. She is also currently studying an online Master of Advanced Endoscopy started in November 2020.
She has recently obtained a grant from the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation for a 2-month observership at the National Cancer Centre Hospital in Tokyo, Japan under Professor Yutaka Saito for training in advanced diagnostic and therapeutic techniques for early Upper GI neoplasia, July-August 2023.
Niroshan Muwanwella is an Interventional Gastroenterologist in the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Royal Perth Hospital.
He obtained his primary medical degree from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Following migration to Australia in 2007, he underwent specialist training in WA and obtained the Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP, 2014).
He then completed Advanced Endoscopy Fellowship at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital before completing further training in Interventional Endoscopy as a Therapeutic Endoscopy Fellow at St Michael’s Hospital affiliated to University of Toronto, Canada.
Dr Muwanwella has a special interest in endoscopic resection of early gastrointestinal malignancies and complex polyps utilising EMR and ESD techniques. He also specialises in endoscopic diagnosis and management of Barrett’s oesophagus and associated neoplasia.
He also performs new third space endoscopy techniques for the treatment of various Gastrointestinal conditions including Achalasia, oesophageal pouches and submucosal lesions.
Jacobo Ortiz works as a Consultant Gastroenterologist at the Nottingham University Hospitals and he is currently Upper GI Endoscopy Lead and Cytosponge Clinical Lead and manages the Barrett’s Unit. He qualified from the University of Navarra, Spain in 2000 and completed his training in Gastroenterology at the Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias (HUCA), Spain in 2008.
His interest in advanced therapeutic endoscopy and Barrett’s started in Amsterdam back in 2008, where he spent three months as an observer at the Academic Medical Centre (AMC). Back to Spain he worked for two years as a Consultant in GI Endoscopy in the Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias (HUCA) and then he moved to Chicago to spend a year as an Endoscopy Research Fellow in the Centre for Endoscopic Research and Therapeutics (CERT) of the University of Chicago Medical Centre with Professor Irving Waxman. In the USA his research was focused in advanced endoscopic imaging for diagnosis of Early Barrett’s neoplasia, endotherapy for Barrett’s oesophagus and new approaches for endoscopic biliary access and advanced EUS techniques. He returned to his original post in Spain where he helped in setting up in Asturias one of the first units in the country offering endoscopic treatment for early Barrett’s neoplasia.
He moved to Nottingham in 2012 to progress in his training as an interventional endoscopist and completed an Advanced Endoscopy Fellowship with Professor Krish Ragunath, being EUS and endoscopic therapies for early GI neoplasia his main fields of interest. He was appointed as a Consultant Gastroenterologist in Nottingham in 2016.
His research activity includes advanced endoscopic imaging, early Upper GI neoplasia diagnosis and minimally invasive endoscopic therapy of early Upper GI cancer. He has developed close research collaborations with Cambridge, UCL and Amsterdam groups.
Adolfo Parra-Blanco is currently a Consultant Gastroenterologist at the Nottingham University Hospitals. He has worked previously as an Associate Professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica in Chile, and in Spain as Head of Endoscopy at Asturias Central University Hospital and in Tenerife University Hospital.
He graduated from Madrid Autonomous University and obtained the Specialty in Gastroenterology at Fundación Jimenez Diaz, Madrid in the same university. He trained for 4 years (1995-1999) in Endoscopy in expert Japanese Institutions (Showa Fujigaoka Hospital, National Cancer Centre East and Tokyo), with a focus on endoscopic diagnosis and treatment of early digestive neoplasia, including chromoendoscopy, magnifying Endoscopy, EMR and ESD. These are still his main research interests. After returning to Spain, he applied and taught those techniques in Spain and later in Latin America.
He has published papers in national and international journals, he is in the Editorial Board of several Endoscopy journals, and is a reviewer for some of the most important Gastroenterology and Endoscopy Journals. He has also performed live endoscopy demonstrations, endoscopy training in animal models and has lectured in national and international meetings.
Ian Penman is a general luminal gastroenterologist with specialist interests in the diagnosis, staging and endoscopic management of gastrointestinal cancers, especially those of the oesophagus, stomach and pancreas/biliary tree. His other areas of interest are oesophageal disease and Barrett’s oesophagus.
He works at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh where he is Clinical Director for GI services. He is Associate Editor of Frontline Gastroenterology and co-editor of Davidson’s Principles and Practice of Medicine. He was Vice President of the BSG and Chair of its Endoscopy committee from 2019-2022.
Nastazja Dagny Pilonis is a gastroenterologist based in Warsaw, Poland.
She is a board-certified specialist in gastroenterology, with extensive training and expertise in the use of endoscopy in the diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal cancers. Dr. Pilonis is currently appointed at the Maria Sklodowska National Institute of Oncology in Warsaw and Clinical Effectivenes Research Group at the University of Oslo in Norway.
Dr. Pilonis completed her residency training and went on to complete a two-year endoscopic research fellowship at the University of Cambridge, focusing on advanced endoscopic imaging and non-invasive methods for Barrett’s esophagus surveillance. Her clinical work now centers on the application of endoscopy in the oncological treatment of patients with gastrointestinal cancers. In addition to her clinical practice, Dr. Pilonis is actively involved in research, with a particular focus on evaluating the clinical effectiveness of endoscopic treatment of gastrointestinal neoplasia. Dr. Pilonis has been appointed as a junior co-editor of the journal Endoscopy.
Roos Pouw was born in 1982 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and was raised bi-lingual by her Dutch and German parents. After obtaining her degree in Medicine at the University of Utrecht and a research fellowship at Harvard Medical School in Boston, she started her career in gastroenterology with a PhD fellowship at the Academic Medical Centers, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In 2011 she obtained her PhD-degree Cum Laude with her thesis entitled "Endoscopic eradication of Barrett's esophagus with early neoplasia". During her training as a gastroenterologist in Amsterdam at the former Academic Medical Center (AMC), she focused on endoscopic detection and treatment of early upper gastrointestinal neoplasia. After finishing her training in 2017, Dr. Pouw was appointed staff member at the Dept. of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at AMC, currently known as the Amsterdam University Medical Centers. Dr. Pouw’s clinical work focusses on offering a wide range of endoscopic treatments to patients with upper gastrointestinal neoplasia.
In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Pouw is principal investigator and supervises a number of research lines on endoscopic management of early Barrett's neoplasia, and for this work, she received the UEG Rising Star award 2020. She also supervises a research line on endoscopic vacuum therapy for treatment of defects in the upper gastrointestinal tract.
Dr. Pouw is co-chair of the Young International Society for Diseases of the Esophagus (ISDE), secretary of the Dutch Upper Cancer Group, national representative for United European Gastroenterology (UEG), task force leader for a number of guideline initiatives and curricula on esophageal neoplasia for the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ESGE) and ISDE, and editorial (advisory) board member for the UEG Journal and Best Practice & Research: Clinical Gastroenterology.
Krish Ragunath moved from Nottingham University, UK to Australia in May 2019 under the Global Talent initiative after being appointed as Professor of Medicine at Curtin University Medical School, and Consultant Gastroenterologist at Royal Perth Hospital, Western Australia. His clinical and research interests include advanced endoscopic imaging, Endoscopic Ultrasound, Barrett’s oesophagus and Green Endoscopy. He has co-edited the BSG Barrett's oesophagus guidelines, Quality standards in upper GI endoscopy, Guidelines for the management of gastric premalignant conditions and UK oesophageal dilatation guidelines. Has authored / co-authored 150 peer reviewed publications and text book chapters. He is Associate Editor for “Digestive Endoscopy” journal, member of the Editorial Board for 'Endoscopy', 'Gastrointestinal Endoscopy', Translational Gastroenterology & Hepatology journals. He was the recipient of the British Society of Gastroenterology, Hopkins Endoscopy Prize 2010.
Manon Spaander is a professor in early detection and screening of premalignant gastrointestinal diseases at the department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Erasmus MC University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Her clinical and research focus on prevention and early detection of gastrointestinal cancers. She participated in several international guideline publications including the recent ESGE Barrett oesophagus guideline, and is currently working on the upcoming ESGE guideline on Management of Premalignant Gastric Lesion, MAPS III guideline.
Hendrik Ueberschaer was born in Hamburg, Germany and obtained medical degree from Ludwig-Maximilian-University (LMU) Munich, Germany in 2007. He completed his Specialist training in Internal Medicin 2013, afterwards gastroenterology training Specialist in Gastroenterology 2016 at Clinic Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Currently working as a consultant gastroenterologist at the same hospital in Interventional Endoscopy.
His research activity focuses in Gastro-oesophageal reflux desease, currently doing a prospective Study for Anti-Reflux-Mucosa-Ablation (ARMA) for therapy refractory Reflux disease.