Juan Verdugo MD

Dr. Juan Pablo Arab Verdugo, MD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition of Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. He serves as the Inaugural Director of Alcohol Sciences at the Stravitz-Sanyal Institute for Liver Disease and Metabolic Health. Dr. Arab trained as a Gastroenterologist and Transplant Hepatologist specialist at the Catholic University of Chile and at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. Dr. Arab’s research in alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) has truly refined the clinical hepatology practice and our understanding of this common disease.

Additionally, he is leading international collaborations aiming to study ALD and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) through multiple consortia (i.e., the Global AlcHep BigData Network with more than 200 centers across the globe, and the STELLA project). Dr. Arab is an Associate Editor for Hepatology (flagship AASLD journal). He is currently the Chair of the Special Interest Group on ALD of the AASLD, ILTS, and ALEH, and Chair of the Clinical Committee at the NIAAA-sponsored AlcHepNet. Additionally, he is the Past-Chair of the Education & Scholarship Committee of the International Liver Transplantation Society (ILTS) and the Chair of the multi-society ALD working group (bringing together the 4 major liver societies in the world).

Dr. Arab's research has been funded by the NIH, AASLD Foundation, and the Chilean and Canadian governments. He has received multiple awards, including the prestigious AASLD/LIFER award for Clinical Research in Liver Diseases. Only in the last 2 years, Dr. Arab has published in the NEJM, The Lancet, Nature Gastroenterology, Lancet Gastroenterology, and all major journals on the specialty. He has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers, co-authored several book chapters, and authored multiple clinical practice guidelines on ALD, MASLD, and hepatorenal syndrome.