Precision medicine in NAFLD may be within reach due to exciting advances in AI technology and genomics. At this year’s NAFLD SIG program, renowned experts share new insights on precision medicine for NAFLD, including recent trends and developments in NAFLD genomics and transcriptomics, and advances in artificial intelligence for NAFLD diagnosis.

Available, safe, and effective oral antiviral therapies help manage complications in patients with HBV, who are at increased risk for infection reactivation as they age due to increased exposure to biologics for various comorbidities. Experts will share advances in novel diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers, when hepatologists should consider prophylactic antiviral therapy, and research advances toward an HBV cure.

Now is the time to discuss transplant metrics and policies, and strategies to improve them in the modern era to drive better long-term, patient-reported outcomes. As liver grafts are still a scarce resource, it is critical to maximize graft utilization and patient survival. This timely program will explore the most recent data to help hepatologists achieve this critical goal.

Implementing up-to-date AASLD practice guidance statements and recommendations can positively affect treatment decisions and patient outcomes at a time when selecting optimal therapy remains a challenge. Review best practices for diagnosis and treatment of patients with nutrition, sarcopenia & frailty, Wilson disease, and primary sclerosing cholangitis-cholangiocarcinoma, plus palliative care in end-stage liver disease and efficacy of noninvasive liver disease assessments.

The 2021 Emerging Trends Symposium will focus on strategies to tailor NASH therapy to the individual patient. Faculty will discuss different phenotypes of NAFLD/NASH, including from a genetic and non-invasive testing perspective. Talks will also cover evidence-based management of NAFLD/NASH and obesity, including lifestyle management discussions with patients, and emerging therapies and noninvasive testing options.

The Career Development Workshop will guide both trainees interested in a hepatology career and early-career hepatologists. Participants will explore hepatology training pathways that lead to different career opportunities in both research and community-based practice. Faculty will discuss the unique rewards and challenges of various hepatology career pathways, and how to maximize one’s potential throughout their career trajectory.

Organ shortage remains the major challenge in liver transplantation, and an increasing number of patients need this life-saving intervention. Delve into innovative techniques to expand the organ donor pool and increase the number of viable livers for transplantation. Experts will review new data on the outcomes of transplantation from the recently expanded donor pool.

Don’t overlook any of the groundbreaking basic science research presented at The Liver Meeting® 2021. The Basic Science Debrief will provide an expert review of all the basic science abstracts presented at the meeting in one condensed session.

Single-cell genomics approaches are transforming our understanding of disease pathogenesis, allowing powerful, unbiased exploration of cell states and types at single-cell resolution, resulting in unexpected novel insights into tissue biology and disease mechanisms. In this session, I will describe how we and others have harnessed these approaches to help decode the cellular and molecular mechanisms driving human liver disease.

This program will provide an overview of the growing rates of NASH induced cirrhosis in the East and the West, as well as address guidance on screening for HCC in NASH and treatment.