Centre for Inflammation Research

Prakash Ramachandran wins the EASL Emerging Leader Award

September 2020: The European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) have awarded Dr Prakash Ramachandran their Emerging Leader Award for 2020

Image of Dr Prakash Ramachandran

Dr Ramachandran received this award for his contributions to liver research, specifically his work defining the role of specific subpopulations of macrophages in regulating liver fibrosis.

EASL is Europe's largest Hepatology society, with over 4,500 active members from around the world. They are committed to pursuing excellence in liver research and the clinical practice of liver disorders. The prestigious Emerging Leader Award is selected by the EASL Governing Board and Young Investigators Task Force and awarded to two young fellows each year, based on their international liver research achievements to date.

Dr Ramachandran is an MRC Clinician Scientist and Honorary Consultant Hepatologist based at the University of Edinburgh Centre for Inflammation Research. His research focusses on the immune regulation of liver fibrosis, and has provided a number of insights into the biology of hepatic macrophages. In recent years, he has used cutting-edge approaches such as single-cell RNA-sequencing to define the specific macrophage subpopulations which regulate scar formation in human liver tissue and how these macrophages talk to other important cell types in the context of liver damage. These findings will hopefully accelerate the discovery of badly-needed new treatments for patients with liver disease.

He received the award at the International Liver Congress, which was held digitally in August 2020.