Prof. Yvan Vandenplas

Head of the Kidz Health Castle at the University Hospital Brussels

Dr. Yvan Vandenplas studied medicine and trained in pediatrics (1981-1986) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He became Head of the Unit for Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition in 1987, and is Head of the KidZ Health Castle at the University Hospital Brussels (UZ Brussel) and the Chair of Pediatrics since 1994.

Yvan’s main interests are gastro-esophageal reflux (diagnostic procedures, treatment), eosinophilic esophagitis, infant nutrition, probiotics and prebiotics, cow’s milk protein allergy, functional gastrointestinal disorders and Helicobacter pylori.  He has published many original research and review papers on topics such as infant nutrition, gastro-esophageal reflux and functional gastrointestinal disorders.

He is now one of the associate editors of the Journal of Paediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition. He is also the chair of the ESPGHAN Special Interest Group on “Gut Microbiota & Modifications”.  Yvan has more than 450 publications listed in Medline, and over 1000 oral presentations at different international meetings.

Prof. Merit Tabbers

Pediatric Gastroenterologist at Emma Children’s Hospital Amsterdam UMC

Merit M. Tabbers studied medicine at the University of Amsterdam (1992-1999) and trained in Pediatrics at Emma Children’s Hospital in Amsterdam. Prof. Tabbers is a board member of Netherlands Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (NESPEN) and chair of this group since 2016.

She is a member of several international committees: member of ESPGHAN Task Force on Societal Papers, member of guideline advisory committee (Dutch Association of Medical Specialists), member of ERNICA intestinal failure working group and organizer of first scientific meeting January 2019. Since 2007, she is pediatric gastroenterologist at Emma Children’s Hospital – Amsterdam UMC. Prof. Tabbers is the author and co-author of many researches and book chapters in pediatric intestinal failure/home parenteral nutrition, guideline development and functional gastrointestinal disease.

Prof. Christophe Dupont

Doctor of Medicine, Specialist in Pediatrics, Doctor of Science, Emeritus Professor-Paris Descartes University

After the boarding school in Paris, Prof. C Dupont was an Inserm researcher, resuscitator in neonatology, then an assistant at Saint Vincent de Paul Hospital before becoming Professor of Pediatrics, then head of the neonatology – pediatric GI department in the same hospital, finally moving to Necker hospital when medical operations were transferred upon the termination of Saint Vincent de Paul Hospital activity.

He is currently continuing his clinical consulting activity specializing in gastroenterology and pediatric nutrition and food allergy.

He holds a science thesis, focused his research on several subjects of interest to pediatric gastroenterology, including digestive hormones, digestive endoscopy, Helicobacter pylori infection, pediatric nutrition and food allergy and sat in numerous scientific commissions, at Inserm, INRA and HAS (French Health Authority).

He is a member of the European Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition as well as of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and an honorary member of the French-speaking Group of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition.

He chairs the Nutrition Committee of the French Pediatric Society.

He is the inventor of a desensitization method for food allergy using the so-called epicutaneous technique, and co-founder of the company DBV Technologies.

He has performed more than 40 clinical trials and published more than 300 articles in international scientific and medical research journals.