Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the Stanford GI Spring Newsletter.  This issue is dedicated to our hepatology and liver transplantation programs.  As a hepatologist myself, I am little biased, but we have a world class liver program at Stanford.

Liver disease is known as the 8^th leading cause of death in the US.  While the disease impact looms large with the rising prevalence of obesity and diabetes fueling the steatotic liver disease epidemic and the heightened alcohol use coinciding with the pandemic, many exciting discoveries and innovations keep us optimistic that we will be able to make an important impact our patients with chronic liver disease. 

With that in the background, please find our presentation of (1) new faculty in hepatology, (2) the expansion of our hepatology program, (3) a recent paper in Nature from the Torok lab on diabetes and liver cancer, (4) the impressive outcomes from our liver transplant program, and (5) celebrating multiple grants, awards and promotions.  

We hope you enjoy the exciting contents in this issue and, as always, we look forward to hearing back from you.