Prof. Dr. med. Helmut K. Seitz, renowned expert in the field of alcohol research worldwide for 50 years

Prof. Dr. med. Prof. h.c. (VRC) Helmut K. Seitz is an internist and gastroenterologist and honorary professor at Heidelberg University.

• He has been conducting scientific research in the field of alcohol studies for 50 years.
• He is considered one of the world's most renowned experts in this field.

He began his scientific career in 1977 at the Center for Liver and Nutritional Diseases, in the laboratory of Charles Lieber, one of the leading alcohol experts at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City.

After scientific stays in London and Boston, he received his clinical training in the Department of Gastroenterology at Heidelberg University Hospital.

From 1991 to 2020, he was director of the Medical Clinic at Salem Hospital in Heidelberg and founded the Alcohol Research Center at Heidelberg University in 2006.

Prof. Seitz is the author and co-author of over 480 publications on the subject of alcohol and has received a number of international awards, including

• the Walter and Christine Richtzenhain Prize from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in 1984,
• the Swiss Alcohol Research Prize in 1985,
• the Homburg Prize in 1986,
• the Hans-Adolf Krebs Prize from the German Nutrition Society in 1987,
• the Hiromasha Ishii Prize in Paris in 2010
• the Tabakoff Prize in 2022 from the International Society for Alcohol Research (ISBRA) in 2010, the Hiromasha Ishii Prize in 2010 in Paris, the Tabakoff Prize in 2023 from the International Society for Alcohol Research (ISBRA)
• and in 2023 the European Alcohol Research Prize, which is endowed with 25,000 euros, the highest prize of its kind

In addition to Professor Seitz's pioneering work on the development, diagnosis, and treatment of alcoholic liver disease, the prize committee in Warsaw particularly honored him for uncovering the links between alcohol and the development of cancer.

Prof. Seitz was the first to identify mechanisms of cancer development caused by alcohol in the colon. He was also able to identify an important metabolic pathway of alcohol oxidation via cytochrome P4502E1 as responsible for cancer development. The Heidelberg alcohol researcher also succeeded in finding a genetic risk marker that indicates the extent of the risk of developing cancer under chronic alcohol influence.

Prof. Seitz's groundbreaking work was featured on the cover of the journal “CANCER RESEARCH” in 1992 and the “INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ONCOLOGY” in 1997.

He was invited to the Nobel Prize meeting on Alcohol Related Diseases in Stockholm in 1996. He has also served as a consultant to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) on the topics of alcohol and cancer and alcoholic liver disease, and was chair of the Gordon Conference on Alcohol in Ventura, California, in 2017.

Prof. Seitz's research is primarily funded by the Dietmar Hopp and Manfred Lautenschläger Foundation and Octapharma by Wolfgang Marguerre, Heidelberg.

Diseases of the liver, gallbladder and bile ducts, esophagus, stomach, small and large intestine, and pancreas.

• He has particular expertise in the treatment of esophageal strictures in patients with epidermolysis bullosa.
• Prof. Seitz has developed a special procedure to reopen narrowings of the esophagus in patients with epidermolysis bullosa. This method has been in use for 15 years, and Prof. Seitz is considered one of the few experts in this field.
• Prof. Seitz is an internationally recognized expert in the field of alcohol-related liver disease.
• As a hepatologist, he offers completely new methods for determining liver fat (CAP) and assessing liver fibrosis (Fibroscan).
• He was involved in the development of the European guidelines for alcoholic liver disease and the German guidelines for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
• Since 2020, he has been working independently as a gastroenterologist at the Ethianum Clinic in Heidelberg, specializing in hepatology, gastroenterology, endoscopy, and alcohol-related diseases.

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