Associate Professor Amany Zekry is a Clinical Academic at the St George and Sutherland Clinical School, UNSW Sydney, and a Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist at St George Hospital. She is part of the research team at the Microbiome Research Centre (MRC), where our group investigates the microbiome's role in the immunopathogenesis and progression of chronic liver disease and liver cancer-

Our group has published novel research examining how adipocytokines and host–microbiome interactions contribute to liver injury and altered immune responses. A major focus of our current research is understanding how the microbiome shapes the intrahepatic immune response in liver cancer, and particularly how microbiome–immune interactions may influence response or resistance to immunotherapy.

We are also funded by the MRFF to lead a national collaborative study investigating microbiome-based biomarkers for the early detection of liver cancer. Through this initiative, we have established a deeply phenotyped biobank of biospecimens from more than 500 people with chronic liver disease, accompanied by detailed clinical, dietary, microbiome and metabolomic data. We are applying artificial intelligence and multi-omics approaches to this rich dataset to understand the clinical course of cirrhosis, identify biological signatures of disease progression and liver cancer development, and ultimately improve risk prediction and early detection.