Our team
Consultant Hepatologists
Dr Jeremy Cobbold MA PhD FRCP
Dr Jeremy Cobbold is Consultant Hepatologist and Clinical Lead for Hepatology at Oxford University Hospitals.
Dr Cobbold manages a full range of liver conditions and has special clinical interests in:
- metabolic dysfunction associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD)
- non-invasive assessment of chronic liver disease
- management of advanced liver disease including cirrhosis and its complications.
He runs the joint Oxford / Royal Free liver transplant service in collaboration with the Royal Free transplant team.
Dr Cobbold serves as lead for the for the British Association for the Study of the Liver (BASL) MASLD Special Interest Group.
Dr Cobbold trained in Hepatology and Gastroenterology in London, including at St Mary's Hospital and the Royal Free Hospital, having graduated in Medicine from the University of Cambridge and University College London. He obtained a PhD from Imperial College London and held the post of Academic Clinical Lecturer at Imperial College thereafter.
Dr Cobbold is currently an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Oxford.
Dr Emma Culver BSc (Hons) MBChB MRCP DPhil
Dr Emma Culver is Consultant Hepatologist and Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Oxford Liver Unit and University of Oxford.
She has clinical expertise in:
- immune-mediated liver diseases;
- autoimmune hepatitis
- primary sclerosing cholangitis
- primary biliary cholangitis
- IgG4-related disease
- primary liver cancers (hepatocellular and cholangiocarcinoma).
She is the Supervisor for the Medical Student Gastro/Hep teaching and Senior Clinical Fellow Gastro/Hep programme.
National Committee positions include:
- Chair for UK-IgG4
- Steering Committee for BASL Immune Mediated Liver Disease (IMLD) Special Interest Group
- Steering Committee for UK-PSC
- Scientific Committee for UK-AIH.
She is part of the Operational Committee for Oxford Centre for Early Cancer Detection (OxCODE) and leads the clinical workstream for the Cancer Research UK funded DeLIVER programme in hepatocellular liver cancer. She receives funding from the NIHR BRC Oxford for translational research studies in inflammation and cancer, and Oxford Charitable Fund for IMLD.
Dr Francesca Saffioti MD PhD Doc Eur
Dr Francesca Saffioti is a Consultant Hepatologist and Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Oxford Liver Unit and University of Oxford.
She graduated in Medicine with First class honours in 2008, from the University of Messina, Italy, where she also obtained her CCT in Internal Medicine in 2014.
She subsequently undertook specialist training in Hepatology at the Royal Free Hospital, London, where she developed particular interest in the study of:
- cholestatic and autoimmune liver diseases
- liver transplantation
- metabolic liver disease
- non-invasive assessment of liver fibrosis and portal hypertension.
She completed a PhD at the University of Messina, Italy, in 2018, and was additionally awarded the title of Doctor Europaeus.
Dr Saffioti runs active clinical research at Oxford University Hospitals and is Principal Investigator in several clinical trials. She has authored more than 45 scientific publications in international peer-reviewed journals and contributed to a number of textbooks in the field of Hepatology. She has presented her scientific work in numerous national and international conferences and regularly teaches medical students and junior doctors at the University of Oxford.
Dr Saffioti is an active member of the British Association for the Study of the Liver (BASL), the Italian Association for the Study of the Liver (AISF) and the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL). She is also a member of the UCL Immune & Cholestatic Liver Disease group of the Institute for Liver and Digestive Health, London.
Professor Michael Pavlides BSc MBBS FRCP DPhil
Professor Michael Pavlides is a Consultant Hepatologist and Associated Professor at Oxford University Hospitals since 2017. He graduated in Medicine in 2004 from The University College London. Dr Pavlides has an interest in quantitative MRI and other non-invasive biomarkers for evaluation of liver disease.
He is the head of liver imaging at the Oxford Centre for Clinical Magnetic Resonance Research (OCMR) and leads the hepato-biliary imaging work in the imaging theme of the Oxford NIHR Biomedical Research Centre. His research aims to develop and validate quantitative imaging biomarkers of liver and biliary disease. His work focuses on the clinical application of MRI techniques for diagnosis of liver disease and its complication like portal hypertension.
Dr Tony Ellis MBBS FRCP
Dr Ellis undertook his undergraduate medical training at St Thomas's Hospital London. He commenced higher training in Gastroenterology and Hepatology in 1990, spending seven of his eight years working in the Institute of Liver Studies, King's College Hospital, London. He held an honorary Senior Registrar post at St Mark's Hospital, London.
His research interests lay within the management of acute liver failure and subacute liver failure.
He was appointed as a consultant Gastroenterologist / Hepatologist to the Oxford University Hospitals in March 1998. Since appointment he has been involved in the investigation and management of patients with a complete spectrum of disease seen within the specialty, including hepatobiliary, immune mediated, metabolic, viral and alcohol-related liver injury.
He has a particular interest in education and has been:
- Oxford Deanery Training Programme Director
- President of the Oxford Gut Club
- Chair of the SAC for Gastroenterology, (responsible for UK training in Gastroenterology and Hepatology)
- UK representative to the European Board of Gastroenterology and Hepatology (EBGH).
He has been a member of the examining board for the Specialty Certificate Examination in Gastroenterology and is currently a member of The ESEGH Standard Setting Committee.
Dr Waleed Fateen MBBS MSC MRCP PhD
Dr Fateen is a consultant hepatologist and pancreato-biliary physician. His area of interest is early cancer detection as well the management of liver, bile duct and pancreatic cancer. He has a PhD in liver cancer from the University of Leeds and a Masters degree from Ain Shams University in Cairo Egypt.
Dr Fateen is an advanced endoscopist with interest in liver, bile duct and pancreatic endoscopy using ERCP and EUS. He started training as a hepatologist in 2005 and has previously served as a substantive consultant hepatologist at the University Hospitals of Leicester. He enjoys explaining complex liver disease in simple terms to patients and their loved ones.
Professor Ellie Barnes PhD FRCP F Med Sci
Eleanor Barnes is Professor of Hepatology and Experimental Medicine at the University of Oxford and the John Radcliffe Hospital, leading a research group in applied immunology relevant to liver disease.
Ellie remains clinically active caring for patients with liver disease. Ellie previously led the UK-wide MRC-funded consortium STOP-HCV, developing stratified medicine to optimise patient clinical outcomes developing high-throughout viral sequencing, integrated with host genetic analysis, RNA sequencing in blood and liver, immune parameters and blood biomarkers, and drawing together leading clinicians, scientist and academics in the field.
Building on STOP-HCV and her experience in liver disease and immunology she is now seeking to develop DeLIVER to develop and test early detection methodologies for the identification of HCC.
