Professor Emad El-Omar | UNSW Research

Fields of Research (FoR)

Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Microbiology, Immunology, Microbiology not elsewhere classified

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Biography

Professor El-Omar graduated in Medicine from Glasgow University, Scotland, and trained as a gastroenterologist. He worked as a Visiting Scholar/Scientist at Vanderbilt University, TN, and National Cancer Institute, MD, USA, and was Professor of Gastroenterology at Aberdeen University, Scotland, from 2000-2016 before taking up the Chair of Medicine at St George & Sutherland Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He is the Editor in Chief of the journal Gut. His research interests include all aspects of the microbiome, inflammation driven GI cancer and IBD. He is the Director of the UNSW Microbiome Research Centre (MRC) at St George Hospital, Sydney. The MRC currently collaborates on >100 research projects across the world. Professor Emad El-Omar is the Professor of Medicine at the St George and Sutherland Clinical Campuses, UNSW Australia, and the Director of the UNSW Microbiome Research Centre at St George Hospital, Kogarah.

Society Memberships & Professional Activities:
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, elected 2007
Member of the Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland, elected 2001
Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, elected in 2002

Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, elected 2017
Member of the American Gastroenterological Association
Member of the British Society of Gastroenterology

Honorary Fellow of the Hong Kong Society of Gastroenterology

Editor in Chief of the journal Gut since January 2010 (2022 impact factor 23.0)
http://gut.bmj.com/

Visiting Professor: Chinese PLA Medical College and General Hospital, Beijing, China; term November 2013- November 2016.

Academic Counsellor for the Academic Committee of the Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, Hangzhou, China; term September 2014 – September 2018.

Honorary Professor of Medicine, Aberdeen University, UK: 2016-2021.

Specific Research Keywords:
Gastric cancer, colorectal cancer, microbiome, host genetics, Helicobacter pylori, inflammatory bowel disease, chronic inflammation

ILP/Honours research projects available for 2023:
Role of microbiota in pregnancy and its outcomes

Role of the microbiome in dementia

Effect of proton pump inhibitors on the gut microbiome

My Grants

Research support in past 5 years

Source: NHMRC

*CIA Hansbro, CIB El-Omar, et al. Synergy Grant, title “Defining the role and therapeutic manipulation of the gut-lung axis in COPD”. Total awarded $5M; 2022-2026.

Australian Federal Government

*CI: E El-Omar through St George & Sutherland Medical Research Foundation

Title: establishment of a Microbiome Research Centre at St George Hospital. Total awarded and year funded: $4M; 01/04/2017-31/12/2021

Title: Establishing a bioinformatics unit at the Microbiome Research Centre. Total Awarded: $2M, 2018-2022

Source: Medical Research Future Fund

*CI: E El-Omar through St George & Sutherland Medical Research Foundation

Title: MothersBabies Study and the Healthy Optimal Australian Microbiome (HOAM) study. Total awarded: $2M, 2019-2023.

*MRF2008996. CIA: A Zekry, CIB: El-Omar et al. Title: Microbial based biomarkers powered by artificial intelligence for early detection of liver cancer in Australia. The Australian Liver Cancer Microbiome Consortium. 01/06/2021-31/05/2025. $3,989,421.

My Qualifications

Qualifications:
BSc (Hons) in Pathology, (1986)
MB ChB, (1988)
M.D. Awarded With Honours and Bellahouston Medal July, 1995
FRCP (Edinburgh), 2002
FRSE (Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh) 2007

FRACP

My Awards

*Presidential Medal, British Society of Gastroenterology, 2015.

*Academic Counsellor for the Academic Committee of the Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, Hangzhou, China; Sep 2017 – Sept 2021.

*Honorary guest and recipient of the 17th annual Wensel-Sherbaniuk Lectureship Award in Gastroenterology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, October 2018

*Honorary Professor, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Centre Institute, 2019-2026

*Distinguished Professor, The National University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2020-21.

*Sir Arthur Hurst Lecture Award 2021, the highest award granted by the British Society of Gastroenterology.

*Distinguished Professor, Jilin University, Changchun, China, 2022-2027

My Research Activities

Research Interests:
The research focus of our team is the role of chronic inflammation in GI disease, particularly malignancy. This inflammation is often microbially induced, hence our focus on understanding the gut microbiota and host bacterial interactions in several gastrointestinal and non-GI diseases. Since 2017, we have established the UNSW Microbiome Research Centre (MRC) at St George Hospital. The MRC's aim is to facilitate collaborative research in all aspects of microbiome related health and disease, including cancer, maternal and child health, infection/inflammation/immunity, critical care and neuroscience/mental health. The MRC boasts over 100 collaborative research projects that cover a wide variety of disciplines and specialties. Our most developed research programmes deal with cancers of the stomach, colon and liver. We also have a strong programme on the role of the gut microbiota in inflammatory bowel disease. The MRC also leads two iconic studies including the MothersBabies study (role of the microbiome in pregnancy and its outcomes from preconception to one year postpartum), and the Healthy Optimal Australian Microbiome (HOAM) Study, which aims to define the template for the optimal microbiome. We also have research programmes on dementia We collaborate with research groups across the world and have a particularly strong presence in the Asia-Pacific region.

Broad Research Areas:
Gastrointestinal and liver cancer
Inflammatory bowel disease
All aspects of microbiome research
Molecular microbiology
Host genetics
Gastric physiology