Dr Shilpa Chokshi

Dr Shilpa Chokshi is the Chief Scientific Officer of the Institute of Hepatology, she oversees the scientific, research and technological operations of the Institute of Hepatology and assists the Director to set the institutional research and scientific priorities so they are aligned with the overall mission and goals of the Foundation for Liver Research charity. A core part of her role is to mentor the clinical and scientific principal investigators in identifying areas that need priority, as well as helping to design diverse programmes of translational research work that will result in tangible treatment strategies for patients with liver disease.

Her personal research interests focus on understanding the paradoxical immunological landscape that exists in end-stage liver disease, which encompasses a highly activated and damaging systemic immune response that is unable to defend against bacterial and viral pathogens and is unable to maintain anti-tumour immunity. The main aim of the research programme is to develop disease-specific host-targeted immunomodulatory strategies for chronic liver disease in order to rebalance this skewed equilibrium to restore a state of effective anti-pathogen and anti-cancer immunity with dampening of injurious inflammatory processes.