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Guru Aithal

Head of Division, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences

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Biography

Professor Guruprasad P. Aithal graduated with MBBS from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, MD (Internal Medicine) from Bangalore Medical College, Bengaluru, India and completed his specialist training in Gastroenterology in the Northern Deanery, UK. He received PhD from the University of Newcastle and was an International Fellow at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, USA.

He is Professor of Hepatology and the Head of the Division for the Nottingham Digestive Diseases Centre, School of Medicine. He is also the Gastrointestinal & Liver Disorder Theme Lead for the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre at the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and the University of Nottingham.

He is the Deputy Project Co-ordinator and work package lead of the 'Translational Safety Biomarker Pipeline (TransBioLine)' programme of the Innovation Medicines Initiative (IMI) of the European Union and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries & Associations (EFPIA) (2019-24)

He is also the Hepatology lead for the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme: 'Anti-TB drug hepatotoxicity and treatment reintroduction' (2020-26).

Expertise Summary

  • Genetics of complex disorders
  • Metabolic physiology
  • Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging

Teaching Summary

Prof Aithal is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2019). He has been an invited faculty for post-graduate course in Europe, USA, Asia and Africa. He is also Joint Advisory Group for… read more

Research Summary

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI): Genetic and environmental factors associated with drug-induced liver injury, non-invasive markers to detect and monitor hepatotoxicity.

Metabolic liver diseases: Interaction of dietary and genetic factors in the pathogenesis, non-invasive detection and stratification of non-alcohol and alcohol related liver diseases, interventions to prevent and resolve non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.

Non-invasive evaluation of liver and biliary disorders: Application of biomedical imaging methods to evaluate physiology, pathobiology and its consequences. Optimising endoscopic evaluation of hepato-pancreatico-biliary neoplacia; tools and techniques

Recent Publications

  • ANSTEE, QUENTIN M, DARLAY, REBECCA, COCKELL, SIMON, MERONI, MARICA, GOVAERE, OLIVIER, TINIAKOS, DINA, BURT, ALASTAIR D, BEDOSSA, PIERRE, PALMER, JEREMY, LIU, YANG-LIN, AITHAL, GURUPRASAD P, ALLISON, MICHAEL, YKI-JARVINEN, HANNELE, VACCA, MICHELE, DUFOUR, JEAN-FRANCOIS, INVERNIZZI, PIETRO, PRATI, DANIELE, EKSTEDT, MATTIAS, KECHAGIAS, STERGIOS, FRANCQUE, SVEN, PETTA, SALVATORE, BUGIANESI, ELISABETTA, CLEMENT, KARINE, RATZIU, VLAD, SCHATTENBERG, JORN M, VALENTI, LUCA, DAY, CHRISTOPHER P, CORDELL, HEATHER J and DALY, ANN K, 2020. Genome-wide association study of non-alcoholic fatty liver and steatohepatitis in a histologically-characterised cohort. Journal of hepatology.
  • MOOLLA, AHMAD, DE BOER, JASPER, PAVLOV, DAVID, AMIN, AMIN, TAYLOR, ANGELA, GILLIGAN, LORNA, HUGHES, BEVERLY, RYAN, JOHN, BARNES, ELEANOR, HASSAN-SMITH, ZAKI, GROVE, JANE, AITHAL, GURUPRASAD P., VERRIJKEN, AN, FRANCQUE, SVEN, VAN GAAL, LUC, ARMSTRONG, MATTHEW J., NEWSOME, PHILLIP N., COBBOLD, JEREMY F., ARLT, WIEBKE, BIEHL, MICHAEL and TOMLINSON, JEREMY W., 2020. Accurate non-invasive diagnosis and staging of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease using the urinary steroid metabolome ALIMENTARY PHARMACOLOGY & THERAPEUTICS. 51(11), 1188-1197
  • LI, YI-JU, PHILLIPS, ELIZABETH, DELLINGER, ANDREW, NICOLETTI, PAOLA, SCHUTTE, RYAN, LI, DANMENG, OSTROV, DAVID A, FONTANA, ROBERT J, WATKINS, PAUL B, STOLZ, ANDREW, DALY, ANN K, AITHAL, GURUPRASAD P, BARNHART, HUIMAN and CHALASANI, NAGA, 2020. HLA-B*14:01 and HLA-B*35:01 are associated with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole induced liver injury. Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.).
  • NEWSOME, PHILIP N, PALMER, MELISSA, FREILICH, BRADLEY, SHEIKH, MUHAMMAD Y, SHEIKH, AASIM, SARLES, HARRY, HERRING, ROBERT, MANTRY, PARVEZ, KAYALI, ZEID, HASSANEIN, TAREK, LEE, HAK-MYUNG and AITHAL, GURUPRASAD P, 2020. Volixibat in adults with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis: 24-week interim analysis from a randomized, phase II study. Journal of hepatology.

Prof Aithal is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2019). He has been an invited faculty for post-graduate course in Europe, USA, Asia and Africa. He is also Joint Advisory Group for on GI Endoscopy (JAG) accredited trainer for advanced endoscopic biliary procedures.

Past Research

  • Drug-induced liver injury (causality assessment, outcome, genetic and environmental factors that effect drug metabolism and hepatotoxicity).
  • Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (mechanisms and biomarkers of liver injury and effective interventions).
  • Epidemiology of liver and biliary disease (cause and consequences)
  • Endoscopic hepato-pancreatico-biliary imaging (tools and techniques)

Future Research

Quantitative and dynamic MRI techniques in chronic liver disease: In collaboration with Prof Penny Gowland and Dr Susan Francis (Sir Peter Mansfield MRI Centre), we have validated simple, non-contrast MRI methods to quantify fat, inflammation, iron and fibrosis within the liver. We will use quantitative and dynamic MRI techniques to investigate the pathophysiology of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and portal hypertension. We will evaluate the relationship between splanchnic perfusion, bowel transit and bacterial translocation. We will use MR spectrospcopic methods to evaluate the effects of dietary and life style interventions in chronic liver diseases

Dietary, life style and genetic factors associated with the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD): Considering its prevalence, any intervention that is proposed in the prevention and therapy of NAFLD, essentially has to be applicable to a substantial proportion of the population. Currently, I am collaborating with Prof Macdonald, Prof Andy Salter and Dr Andrew Bennett to investigate intense dietary interventions in bariatric surgery patients. I have also established collaboration with Institute of Population Health and Science, Trevandrum and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India; in a well characterized population based cohort we will investigate the interaction between dietary and environmental factors related to the development of NAFLD.

Identification, development and validation of markers of liver injury: As a co-chair of International DILI Consortium (iDILIC), I have collected a large cohort of deeply phenotyped patients with DILI for pharmacogenetics studies. We will perform large scale case-control association studies using 'whole genome genotyping/ exon sequencing' methods to identify novel genetic factors underlying DILI pathogenesis.

School of Medicine

University of Nottingham
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