Dr Croft is an academic paediatric gastroenterologist with an interest in clinical research particularly in inflammatory bowel disease. He has been co- principle and chief investigator for 7 industry studies over the last 5 years. He was a founder member and first chair of the UK Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition Clinical Studies Group and continues as a co-director of the London and South East Medicines for Children’s Research Network. He is currently leading the development of the Paediatric European Digestive Diseases Clinical Research Network (PEDDCReN).

Credentials and Affiliations:

Barts and the London School of Medicine, Queen Mary University of London
Barts and the London Children’s Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust M.B.B.S. (London) 1986
Ph.D. (Edinburgh) 1997
FRCPCH (Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health) 1998

Her current research concerns pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) with a main focus on clinical and translational studies. She is particularly interested in the safety and efficacy of medical treatment of IBD as illustrated by a large international survey on cancer and mortality within pediatric-onset IBD. Furthermore, she is principal investigator and project leader of ITSKids, a randomised controlled trial on top-down versus step-up treatment in newly diagnosed pediatric Crohn’s disease.

She is steering committee member of the ESPGHAN IBD Porto working group and she is part of the senior faculty of the Young Investigators Forum (YIF) of the ESPGHAN.

Credentials and Affiliations:

Graduated Medical School at University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands 1995.
Pediatrician, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2003.
Pediatric gastroenterologist, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands 2006.
Doctorate at University of Amsterdam, Ph.D. Thesis: “Pediatric inflammatory bowel disease: scoping the future. Genetics, diagnostics and therapeutics”, 2007.
Pediatric gastroenterologist, Erasmus MC-Sophia Children’s Hospital, Rotterdam (the Netherlands) since 2007.

He undertook subspecialty training at the Hospital for Sick Children (Sickkids), Toronto, Canada. His post-graduate research fellowship in the Department of Immunology, University of Toronto and the Cell Biology Programme, Sickkids, Toronto focused on host responses to invading micro-organisms (autophagy) and its links to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and H pylori infection. He leads the DOCHAS initiative (Determinants and Outcomes in CHildren and AdolescentS with IBD) – the first prospective study of paediatric IBD in Ireland – and is a collaborator on a number of international paediatric IBD studies.

He runs a specialist multidisciplinary clinical service for children with gastrointestinal motility and functional disorders including a national service for children with intestinal pseudo-obstruction.

Dr Thapar’s research portfolio includes the development of enteric neuromusculature, the aetiopathogenesis and treatment of gut motility disorders, neuroimmune interactions in eosinophilic and allergic gut disorders and regenerative medicine. The latter studies have explored the therapeutic potential of enteric neural stem cells for the replenisment and repair of ENS and CNS disorders as well as gut tissue engineering.

The unit research team are also engaged in a number of clinical trials over a number of projects ranging from specialised feeds and allergy through to new treatments for constipation and genetics.

Dr Thapar sits on committees of the European Society of Paediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN), United European Gastroenterology, UK’s Medicines for Children Research Network and chairs the British Society of Paediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition gut motility disorders working group. Dr Thapar is co-editor of the textbook of Paediatric Neurogastroenterology and co-director of the Academy of Paediatric Gastroenterology.

Marko graduated in medicine from the University of Turku in 1995. He successfully defended his doctoral thesis at the same university in 2001. Between 2003 and 2004 he worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Combined Program, in Paediatric Gastroenterology at MassGeneral Hospital for Children and in Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, USA. After returning back to Finland, he finished his specialisation in paediatrics and paediatric gastroenterology.

Marko’s research work has focused on probiotics in allergy, gut microbiota, coeliac disease and colic crying. He received the 1st Infant and Toddler Nutrition Award of the European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition in 2004 and has worked as an ad hoc reviewer for several journals including Lancet, British Medical Journal and Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition.

Marko has served as the secretary (2009-2011) and as the president (2011-2013) in the Paediatric Gastroenterology division of the Finnish Paediatric Society.

• 737 journal articles (12 543 times cited, H-index 57)
• 190 book chapters
• 29 books / monographies

Patents

• Hochdurchsatzmethode zur Analyse der Fettsäurezusammensetzung in Phosphoglyceriden von Zellen und Geweben in Blutproben (Blutplasma bzw. Blutserum) (DE102008046227A1)
• High throughput method for analyzing the fatty acid composition of plasma phosphoglycerides’(US 2011/0136143 A1)
• Zentrifugengefäß mit Halterung für Abstrichgerät (EU PCT/EP2011/003829)

Current leadership roles:

• Coordinator of several international research consortia, incl. the EU FP7 EarlyNutrition Project (project-earlynutrition.eu), and the ESPEN Project on Disease Associated Malnutrition in Children
• President, European Society Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition (www.espghan.org)
• Managing Director, Early Nutrition Academy (www.early-nutrition.org)
• Chair, Committee on Nutrition, German Society Paediatrics (www.dgkj.de)
• Chair, Child Health Foundation German (www.kindergesundheit.de/)
• Member, Central Grant Review Board Medicine, German Research Council (www.dfg.de)
• Chair, Scientific Committee, National Network Young Families (www.gesund-ins-leben.de)
• Member, United European Gastroenterology General Assembly (www.ueg.eu)
• Council Member, Federation of International Societies on Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (www.fispghan.org)
• Board Member, German Platform Nutrition and Physical Activity (www.pebonline.de)
• Board Member, International Society f. t. Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids (www.issfal.org)  
• Scientific Advisory Board Member, Centre for Fetal Programming (www.cfp-research.com)
• Scientific Advisory Board Member, Gravida National Centre for Growth and Development (www.gravida.org.nz)
• Member, Center of Advanced StudiesLMU, University of Munich
• Member, Munich Center of Health Sciences

Scientific journal editor:

• Editor in Chief, Annals Nutrition & Metabolism
• Editor in Chief, World Review of Nutrition and Dietetics
• Associate Editor, Current Opinion Clin Nutrition Metabolic Care
• Associate Editor, Monatsschrift Kinderheilkunde

Current scientific advisory roles:

• Member, Grant Review Committee Medicine, German Research Council
• Scientific Advisor, New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
• Scientific Advisor, Centre for Fetal Programming
• Scientific Advisor, Gravida International
• Jury member, Dr. Werner Fekl Award for Nutritional Medicine

Current research funding:

• European Commission DG Research and Innovation
• European Research Concil
• German Research Council (DFG)
• Bundesministerium f. Bildung u. Forschung / Federal Ministry of Education and Research

• Stiftung Kindergesundheit / Child Health Foundation
• Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation
• Johnson and Johnson Citizen Trust
• Nutricia Foundation
• The Fishery and Aquaculture Research Fund, Norway
• Abbott, Columbus
• Beneo, Mannheim
• B. Braun, Melsungen
• Danone Utrecht
• DSM Basel
• Fresenius-Kabi, Bad Homburg
• Hipp Pfaffenhofen
• Nestlé Vevey

Selected previous scientific advisory and leadership roles:

• Member and Rapporteur, European Commission Scientific Committee on Food
• Scientific Advisor, European Parliament Committee on Consumer Protection
• Scientific Advisor, Innovation Initiative of the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany
• Scientific Advisor, Forum Early Childhood Education, German Federal Minister of Family, Seniors, Women and Youth
• Scientific Advisor, United Nations University
• Chair, ESPGHAN Committee on Nutrition
• Co-ordinator, EU FP6 Early Nutrition Programming Project (EARNEST)
• Co-ordinator, EU FP5 Childhood Obesity Project (CHOP)
• Co-ordinator, EU FP5 Progamming by Infant Nutrition Project (PIANO)

Selected honors:

• Young Investigator Award, Int. Soc. Research in Human Milk & Lactation 1986
• Hans-Adolf-Krebs-Award, German Society for Nutrition 1989
• Kraft Research Award 1991
• Petenyi Geza Award, Hungarian Society for Paediatrics 1994 & 1996
• John Harries Prize, Eur Soc Paediatr Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition 1995
• Copenhagen Research Award 1997
• Research Award of the German Society for Nutritional Medicine 1999
• Corresponding Member, Swiss Society for Paediatrics 2000
• Konstantin-Horemis-Award, Panhellenic Society for Paediatrics 2001
• Honorary Chair, Medical Faculty, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium 2001
• Honorary Member, Polish Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition 2002
• Research Award Smokefree Life, Medical Workign Group Smoking and Health 2003
• Nomination for German Prevention Award of the German Federal Ministry of Health 2004
• Jean Rey Award, European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition 2004
• Dr Sreemanta Banjerjee Memorial Lecture, The Bengal Obstetric and Gynecological Society 2004
• Comprix Gold Award for Innovative Health Communictaion 2005  
• Freedom to Discover Award, Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation New York 2006
• Dr. Werner Fekl Award 2006
• Honorary Medal, Children’s Memorial Institute Warsaw 2006
• Infant and Toddler Nutrition Research Award, European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN) 2006
• ESPEN Network Grant 2009
• Comprix Gold Award for Innovative Health Communication 2009
• Rank Lecture Award, The Nutrition Society 2012
• Arved Wretlind Lecture Award, European Society Clinical Nutrition Metabolism 2012
• European Research Council Advanced Grant Award 2013-2018
• Guest Professor, Poznan Univ. of Med. Sciences 2013-14
• Fit4Future Award 2014, Cleven Foundation

More recently he has been the Clinical Lead for The Medicine for Children Research Network NE England Area, and Clinical Lead for the Great North Children's Hospital Research Unit. He works as a Consultant Paediatric Gastroenterologist at the Great North Children's Hospital in Newcastle upon Tyne, and at the Institute of Health and Society at Newcastle University. He is currently the Research Chair for the British Society of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition.