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In the Season 3 NAFLD Year-in-Review conversations series, Surfers Jörn Schattenberg, Louise Campbell and Roger Green embark on a string of interviews with a handful of Key Opinion Leaders who made headlines and advances in Fatty Liver disease in 2022. In this exclusive segment, Mazen Noureddin reflects on both personal and professional developments. 

Mazen begins by describing a move from Los Angeles to Houston where he is focused on establishing the state-of-the-art Houston Research Institute. He next highlights contributing to the development of a highly specific MRI-based (MAST) score to identify patients with fibrotic NASH as a major achievement of the year. In another underscore, Mazen points to presenting an abstract at AASLD last month on top-line results from a phase 2a trial on the mitochondrial uncoupler, HU6. Jörn joins to prod into the latter presentation and ask whether mechanisms trialed in obesity and other metabolic diseases are trending toward being investigated within hepatology. Mazen suggests that while mitochondrial uncouplers have been explored for many years, recent innovation in NASH can be an expected path given the nature of being a multi-systemic disease. He goes on to describe determining nuances in the efficacy of weight-loss medications and their different mechanisms of action.

From here the conversation picks up on the increasing optimism around the use of NITs and Mazen’s involvement  with the NAIL-NIT Consortium. Roger notes that earlier in the year, Mazen stood out as someone who aggressively pushed a closing window toward moving beyond the biopsy. Remarkably, Mazen’s optimism and confidence in the development and implementation of NITs still projects these faster advancements. As the session winds down, Mazen speaks to what he hopes to see in the coming year.