Press Releases
A special conference in memory of the late Prof. Tuvia Gilat, was held today at the Sourasky Medical center in Tel-Aviv.
Porf. Gilat, who passed away in 2011, was the founder of modern Israeli gastroenterology. His activities span from patient care to clinical and basic research. He was the mentor of most of the present leading gastroenterologists in Israel, the Founder and first Head of the Tel Aviv Gastroenteroligic research center, a world renowned scientist, and Founder of Galmed Pharmaceuticals.
Prof. Gilat studied Medicine in Geneva and Jerusalem. He received his M.D. in Jerusalem in 1957. He trained in Internal Medicine at the Sheba Medical Center, in Israel, and in Gastroenterology at Cornell Medical College, NY, and Yale Medical Center, New Haven, CO, between 1962 and 1965.
Upon his return to Israel he founded and became the Chief -Department of Gastroenterology at the Tel-Aviv Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital), in which capacity he served until 1996. He became a Professor of Gastroenterology from the Tel-Aviv University Sackler Faculty of Medicine in 1980. Between 1995 and 2001 he was Director of the Minerva Center for Cholesterol Gallstones and Lipid Metabolism in the Liver at the Tel-Aviv University. Prof Gilat published more than 260 scientific papers on his main research area, gallstones and cholesterol solubility in bile.
Among the distinguished speakers were Prof. Vlad Ratziu from Marie Curie University in Paris, and Prof. Arun J Sanyal, from Virginia University in Richmond, VA who are Key Opinion Leaders in NAFLD/NASH. Additional speakers included Prof. Stephen B. Hanauer and Prof. Steven M. Strasberg, leading researchers in the area of biliary tract disorders.