Dr. Robert Schwabe is a Professor in the Department of Medicine and in the Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia University, and the Director of the Columbia University Digestive and Liver Disease Research Center. Dr. Schwabe received his MD as well as a doctoral degree in Immunology from Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany. His laboratory is dedicated to studying consequences of liver injury including inflammation, fibrosis and cancer and is currently employ novel bioinformatic tools to understand key drivers of fibrosis and liver cancer. Dr. Schwabe’s lab has shown key roles of the hepatic stellate cells in liver fibrosis development and liver cancer promotion as well as role of Toll-like receptors and the gut microbiota in liver fibrosis and liver cancer development. Dr. Schwabe has authored 125 publications, including senior author papers in Nature Medicine, Cancer Cell, Cell Metabolism and the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Dr. Schwabe hold several grants from the NIDDK/NIH and NCI/NIH, and is a past recipient of grants from the American Liver Foundation, a Research Scholar Award from the American Gastroenterological Association and postdoctoral fellowships from the American Liver Foundation and the German Academic Exchange Service. Dr. Schwabe is currently an Editor for Journal of Hepatology Reports, a past Associate Editor of Gastroenterology, and Journal of Hepatology, and a former member of the Hepatobiliary Pathophysiology study section of the NIH.