ERN RARE-LIVER Webinar Series 16.09.2025: Biliary Atresia Screening in Europe - Current status and future

Please use this link:  https://uke-de.zoom-x.de/j/67580951413?pwd=tEZQjIuX93nTvT0MoBdmkWBkdDbUMF.1 

Speakers: 

Rani Kassir, Hôpital Femme Mère Enfant, France

Barbara Wildhaber, Geneva University Hospitals, Switzerland

Marie Uecker, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany

Philip Bufler, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany

Chairs:

Omid Madadi-Sanjani, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany

Agenda:

Biliary Atresia (BA) is a rare fibro-obliterative disease with an incidence of approximately 1:15.000 – 20.000 in Europe. Still, BA is the most common indication for paediatric liver transplantation (pLT) globally. It is well known that early diagnosis and Kasai-portoenterostomy, a palliative procedure aiming to restore biliary drainage, might prevent or at least delay the indication for pLT. Therefore, screening for BA has gained importance and has been recently introduced in European nations.

• Current screening experiences in Europe (France and Switzerland) using stool color cards
• Alternative screening projects, e.g. using biomarkers and artificial intelligence (Germany)

Short bios:

Rani Kassir French paediatric surgeon currently training in paediatric hepatobiliary surgery and liver transplantation. He trained in two of the largest French centres for paediatric hepatobiliary surgery and liver transplantation – first at Necker Enfants Malades Hospital in Paris, and currently at the Hôpital Femme Mère Enfant in Lyon. He is also a PhD candidate in Public Health at Université Paris-Saclay. His research focuses on the long-term outcomes, prognostic factors, and care organisation for biliary atresia in France between 1986 and 2025.

Barbara Wildhaber is specialised in paediatric hepato-biliary surgery and pediatric liver transplantation, surgical director of the Swiss Pediatric Liver Center at the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) and professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva. She conducts research in her areas of her expertise and focuses mainly on liver transplantation in children and biliary atresia. In this context, Barbara Wildhaber has developed and introduced a Swiss nationwide screening program for this serious congenital disease. 

Marie Uecker is a paediatric surgeon at the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf. Her clinical and research focus is Biliary Atresia, with particular interest in deepening the understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms and improving diagnostic pathways to enhance long-term outcomes for patients.

Philip Bufler was trained in paediatrics at LMU Munich where is also completed his doctorate in immunology. He deepened his scientific expertise in innate immunity during a postdoctoral fellowship in Denver, Colorado, from 2001-2003. He subsequently earned board certifications in paediatrics, paediatric gastroenterology and allergology. In 2017, Philip Bufler was appointed Full Professor and Director of the Department of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Nephrology and Metabolic diseases at Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin. His basic and clinical research spans paediatric cholestatic and metabolic liver diseases, inflammatory bowel diseases, multicentre clinical trials and the coordination of national treatment guidelines. Most recently, he has been advancing a strategy for unbiased, AI-driven stool colour analysis for early detection of biliary atresia. Philip Bufler’s research is supported by leading funding bodies and includes pioneering studies utilizing organoid models derived from liver and intestinal tissue. Prof. Bufler is a passionate mentor and actively supports young clinician scientists in their academic careers.

Omid Madadi-Sanjani is a board certified general surgeon and paediatric surgeon, with special interest in paediatric hepatobiliary surgery working in the Department of Visceral Transplantation and the Department of Paediatric Surgery at the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf. His research focus is the surgical management of rare paediatric liver diseases, mainly biliary atresia (BA) for which he is part of the evaluation process for German BA centralization of care and the screening for early BA detection. For that, he was part of the expert consultant group of the Federal Joint Committee for the screening of BA in Germany.