Debbie L Shawcross, BSc, MBBS, PhD, FRCP

Biography

Debbie Shawcross is a Clinician Scientist and Professor of Hepatology and Chronic Liver Failure at the Institute of Liver Studies and James Black Centre, King's College London. She works as a Consultant Hepatologist on the King's Liver Unit with a specialist interest in hepatic encephalopathy, liver failure syndromes and the complications of cirrhosis.

She joined the EASL [European Association for the Study of the Liver] Scientific Committee and Governing Board in October 2022 and was elected Vice Secretary General of EASL in June 2023. She will become the first fever female Secretary General in May 2025.

She is an advocate for high quality education and training in gastroenterology and hepatology having been a Health Education England London Gastroenterology Training Programme Director for 10 years, BSG Mentor and an active member of the BSG Supporting Women in Gastroenterology. She is Chair of the British Society of Gastroenterology Research Committee and Council Member. She is also an Associate Editor for Liver Transplantation.

Her research programme characterises the immunobiology of chronic liver failure focusing specifically on the gut-liver-brain axis in the context of the gut microbiome as a driver of immune dysfunction, inflammation and encephalopathy. She is leading the field in clinical trials of faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) in Europe and is Chief Investigator of the NIHR-funded EME UK multicentre randomised placebo-controlled clinical trial of FMT (capsules) [PROMISE Trial] in patients with metabolic-associated and alcohol-related cirrhosis.