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Meet Dr. Bernd Schnabl

About Dr. Schnabl

schnabl-bernd.jpegDr. Schnabl received his medical degree from the University of Freiburg in Germany. During his three-year postdoctoral research training at the Department of Medicine, Biochemistry & Biophysics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he started to study hepatic stellate cell biology and pathophysiology of chronic liver diseases. He completed a residency in Medicine at the University Hospital in Regensburg/Germany and a Gastroenterology fellowship at Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons, in New York City.

He is currently a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology at the University of California San Diego. He is staff physician and attending at the VA San Diego Medical Center and the UC San Diego Medical Center. He divides his time between clinical work and research. He recently became the Director of the NIH-funded San Diego Digestive Diseases Research Center (SDDRC).

Honors & Accomplishments

His many honors include a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Award from the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG), a Schering-Plough Unrestricted Educational Award from the European Foundation for the Study of Liver Diseases (EASL), an American Gastroenterological Association (AGA)/Astra Zeneca Fellowship - Faculty Transition Award (FFTA), a K08 Career Development Award from the NIH/NIDDK, a NIH MERIT Award and a Senior Clinician Scientist Investigator Award from the Department of Veterans Affairs. In recognition of this work, he was elected as full member to the prestigious American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) in 2016. ASCI is North America's oldest and most respected medical honor society. To become ASCI member, outstanding young physician scientists must be nominated. ASCI selects less than 80 members each year from all areas of medicine for their significant research accomplishments.

He was selected as Fellow of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGAF) and the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). He was elected as new member of the Association of American Physician (AAP) in 2023. AAP, established in 1885, is an honorific, elected society of America's leading physician-scientists who exemplify the pinnacle of pioneering and enduring, impactful contributions to improve health. 75 new members are recommended each year. He was among the top 1% highly-cited researchers by citations in Web of Science in 2019, 2021, and 2022. He received the Harrington Scholar-Innovator Award from the Harrington Discovery Institute in 2022 for his groundbreaking research around bacteriophage treatment. He has given keynote addresses at national and international meetings, including a Gordon Research Conference in 2017, the Hans Popper Basic Science State-of-the-Art Lecture in 2017 and the Leon Schiff State-of-the-Art Lecture in 2021 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).

Dr. Schnabl has published over 210 papers in such highly-regarded journals as Nature, Cell Host & Microbe, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Journal of Hepatology and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and he has authored multiple reviews and book chapters. Dr. Schnabl serves as Associate Editor for The Journal of Hepatology (IF 30 in 2022). He is on the editorial board for several journals in the field of hepatology and reviewer for all of the top-tier medical journals.

Research Interests

Dr. Schnabl's main research interests are:

  • Intestinal microbiome, metagenome and transcriptome associated with liver disease
  • Contribution of microbial products and metabolites to liver disease
  • Genetic and molecular mechanisms of chronic liver disease progression