Prof. Atsushi Tanaka was graduated with M.D. degree in 1988 from the University of Tokyo, Japan. After spending three years as residency at St. Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo, he started his career as a researcher in liver diseases with a main focus on autoimmune liver diseases and viral hepatitis. He obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of Tokyo in 1996, and thereafter he stayed at the University of California, Davis since 1996 to 1999 as a visiting scholar with M. Eric Gershwin, M.D., where he elucidated T cell mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis and progression of primary biliary cholangitis (PBC).

Coming back to Japan in 2000, he rose through the academic ranks to become a Professor of Medicine at the Teikyo University School of Medicine in 2011. His area of expertise is autoimmune liver diseases, especially autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), PBC, primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), and IgG4-related sclerosing cholangitis. He has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts devoted to these topics. He has provided exceptional leadership to Japanese hepatology, including ongoing service as Secretary-General of the Drafting Committee for Hepatitis Management Guidelines of the Japan Society of Hepatology (JSH) and play a central role in publishing as well as revising the JSH Guidelines for the Management of HBV/HCV infection. Currently he also serves as a Secretary-General of the Intractable Hepatobiliary Disease Study Group (JAIHSG, JPBCSG, JPSCSG) supported by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan, and is one of the leaders for research of autoimmune liver diseases in Japan. 

He is a member of the Japan Society of Hepatology, the Japanese Society of Gastroenterology, the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (FAASLD since 1996), the European Association for the Study of Liver, and Asia-Pacific Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. He recently served as an active member of APASL clinical practice guidance committee for AIH and PBC.

Publication list:

1. Tanaka A. PBC- no longer a Western disease? Clin Liver Dis, 16(6):228-230, 2020. 

2. Tanaka A, Mori M, Kubota K, et al. Epidemiological features of immunoglobulin G4-related sclerosing cholangitis in Japan. J Hepatobiliary Pancreat Sci, 2020 Sep;27(9):598-603.

3. Tanaka A, Leung PSC, Bowlus CL, Gershwin ME. Primary Biliary Cholangitis. In: Gershwin ME, Vierling JM, Tanaka A, Manns MP Eds. Liver Immunology. Thrid Edition. Springer, 2020: 335-358.

4. Tanaka A, Hirohara J, Nakano T, Matsumoto K, Chazouillères, O, Takikawa H, Hansen BE, Carrat F, Corpechot, C. Association of Bezafibrate with Transplant-Free Survival in Patients with Primary Biliary Cholangitis. J Hepatol, 2021 Apr 18; S0168-8278(21)00245-2. doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2021.04.010. Online ahead of print.

5. Wang G, Tanaka A, Zhao H, et al. The Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver clinical practice guidance: the diagnosis and management of patients with autoimmune hepatitis. Hepatol Int. 2021 Apr;15(2):223-257.