Associate Professor Iris Jonkers
President of the ISSCD
Dr Jonkers is an associate professor at the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), Netherlands. Throughout her career Dr Jonkers has sought to understand how gene expression is regulated and affects biological processes in health and disease. Since 2014, Dr Jonkers has investigated transcription regulation in celiac disease and has since specialized in understanding how gene expression and disease pathways are affected by genetic factors associated with autoimmune diseases.
Associate Professor Fabiana Zingone
President Elect
Dr Zingone is an Associate Professor at the Gastroenterology Unit of the Azienda Ospedale Università Padua, Italy. She conducts her research and clinical activity on immune-mediated gastrointestinal disorders with a particular focus on celiac disease and inflammatory bowel disease.
Dr Zingone is the author of more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, with research focused primarily on gluten-related disorders. She contributed to the recently published European guidelines for celiac disease. Alongside her research and clinical work, she teaches gastroenterology to medical students, gastroenterology residents, and PhD candidates, with a particular focus on celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and malabsorption.
Dr Zingone was been ISSCD Treasurer from 2024-2026 and is also Chair of the ISSCD|Directions committee.
Professor Alberto Caminero
Treasurer
Professor Caminero is an Assistant Professor at the Farncombe Family Digestive Health Research Institute, McMaster University in Canada. He is an early career investigator, and his research program focuses on diet microbiota interactions of relevance in food sensitivities such as celiac disease.
Specifically, he is interested in microbial factors involved in the pathogenesis of celiac disease and the role of microbes in gluten metabolism.
He is also Chair of the ISSCD|ICDS committee.
Dr Luca Elli
Secretary
Dr Elli serves as the Chief of the ‘Center for Prevention and Diagnosis of Celiac Disease’ at Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico in Milan, Italy.
Throughout his career, Luca has dedicated himself to the study and treatment of celiac disease, developing a clinical and scientific expertise in the field. Furthermore, he is an internationally renowned endoscopist, particularly in the specialized domains of small bowel endoscopy utilizing video capsule and double balloon techniques, especially in patients with refractory celiac disease.
Dr Elli is a member of the ISSCD|DIRECTIONS committee.
Dr Robert Anderson
Past President
Dr Anderson is an Australia-based gastroenterologist, translational immunologist, and pharmaceutical and diagnostic developer. Dr Anderson has a global and multi-disciplinary perspective on celiac disease. He trained in medicine and completed a doctorate in New Zealand, and then completed specialist gastroenterology training in Melbourne, Australia.
His research in celiac disease began as a post-doctoral fellow at Oxford University focused on T cells and continued in Melbourne and then Boston USA designing and overseeing preclinical and clinical development of gluten-specific immunotherapy. He has led basic, preclinical and clinical research and pharmaceutical development programs focused on defining and modifying the adaptive immune response to gluten. He is a clinician-scientist who has worked closely with celiac disease patient support groups and industry. Currently, he is leading commercial development of T-cell diagnostics at Novoviah Pharmaceuticals, advises biopharmaceutical developers, and practices clinical gastroenterology at Mackay Base Hospital.
Professor Govind Makharia
Professor Makharia is based in the Department of Gastroenterology and Human Nutrition, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. Through a systematic review and meta-analysis, which has been highly cited, Dr Makharia and his team explored the global burden of celiac disease and found it to be 0.7%. He and his team conceptualised a pilot multinational Asian study including Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, Singapore, China and India, which has shown prevalence of celiac disease to be 2.4% in patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Through this study, it came to light that celiac disease is indeed emerging in Asia.
With the support of the ISSCD, Prof Makharia, along with his team organised the International Celiac Disease Symposium (ICDS) in India in 2017 which was a huge success. In spring 2024, Prof Makharia led and hosted the inaugural Asian Pacific Celiac Disease Symposium and he will constitute the Asia Pacific Society for the Study of Celiac Disease (APSSCD) within ISSCD. To aid improvement in patient care, he and his team have been working on developing a Celiac Care Mobile application. He has authored more than 359 papers (h-index 60) and is the recipient of research grants from various funding agencies worth more than USD 1,795,983.
Dr Carmen Gianfrani
Doctor Carmen Gianfrani is Head of the Mucosal Immunology and Immune Nutrition Laboratory (MIIN LAB) at the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Naples.
She is an internationally recognised mucosal immunologist whose research focuses on celiac disease and the interaction between food proteins and the gastrointestinal immune system.
She has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications and serves as an editor for Scientific Reports.
Doctor Gianfrani is President of the Working Group on Prolamin Analysis and Toxicity (WGPAT), an Executive Member of the European Society for the Study of Coeliac Disease (ESsCD/ESCID), and a Scientific Advisor to the Italian Celiac Association (AIC). She is committed to advancing international collaboration and innovation in celiac disease research.