Francesco Tovoli

CURRENT POSITION

Associate Professor of Internal Medicine (Academic Discipline MEDS-05/A) at the Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences (DIMEC), University of Bologna. Attending Physician at the Internal Medicine, Hepatobiliary and Immunoallergic Diseases Unit, IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna.

Main areas of clinical and scientific interest: chronic and metabolic liver diseases, including MASLD; hepatocellular carcinoma (including systemic therapies and immunotherapy); celiac disease and gluten-related disorders; immune-mediated liver diseases.

UNIVERSITY TEACHING ACTIVITIES

Teaching activities at the University of Bologna since the 2014/2015 academic year within the Degree Programmes in Medicine and Surgery, Medicine and Surgery (English-taught programme), Health Professions, and the Residency Programme in Internal Medicine. Current and previous teaching appointments include Internal Medicine, Clinical Medicine, Semiotics of the Abdomen, and History of Medicine, with teaching activities mainly focused on Internal Medicine and Clinical Semiotics.

Supervision and training of medical students and residents in Internal Medicine, including supervision of degree and specialty theses.

EDUCATION AND RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

• MD degree from the University of Bologna in 2007 (110/110 cum laude), with an experimental thesis entitled “HCV infection and rheumatological manifestations” (Supervisor: Prof. F. B. Bianchi). Board certification in Internal Medicine from the University of Bologna in 2013 (70/70 cum laude), with an experimental thesis entitled “Novel serological markers of celiac disease in patients with autoimmune hepatitis” (Supervisor: Prof. Marco Lenzi).
• Research activity at the Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna, since 2013, initially as a Research Fellow (2013–2014 and 2018–2022) and as a Junior Assistant Professor (fixed-term, 2014–2017), mainly focusing on biomarkers in immune-mediated diseases and primary liver cancers, with particular emphasis on biomarkers of response to systemic therapies for hepatocellular carcinoma.
• Senior Assistant Professor (fixed-term) from 2022 and Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Bologna since 2025, with concurrent clinical duties at IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna.
• Scientific Secretary of the Residency Programme in Internal Medicine, University of Bologna, since 2022, for the 2022–2024 and 2025–2027 terms.
• Elected member of the Steering Committee of the Italian Association for the Study of the Liver (AISF), for the March 2025–March 2028 term.

CLINICAL ACTIVITIES

• Clinical activity in Internal Medicine, with a particular focus on hepatology, since 2008. Experience in internal medicine ultrasonography.
• Clinical activity dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma within the dedicated HCC outpatient clinic and the institutional multidisciplinary care pathway. Member of the working group that developed the institutional Diagnostic, Therapeutic and Care Pathway (PDTA) for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma at IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna. Since 2023, coordinator of the weekly multidisciplinary meetings for the diagnosis and treatment of primary liver cancers (Liver Oncology Meeting), delegated by the head of the institutional HCC care pathway.
• Clinical activity at the outpatient clinic dedicated to celiac disease and malabsorption syndromes since 2009, with particular expertise in the diagnosis of celiac disease and long-term follow-up of patients on a gluten-free diet, including the assessment and management of nutritional, metabolic and bone health issues associated with the disease and its treatment. Member of the working group that developed the institutional “Diagnostic, Therapeutic and Care Pathway for Adult Patients with Celiac Disease” at IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna. As part of Third Mission activities, involvement in public outreach and science communication on celiac disease and gluten-related disorders through public initiatives and appearances on local and national media, including TG1 Salute and TV2000.
• Member of the Hospital-Community Pain Management Committee (COTSD) at IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna since 2022. The Committee is involved in improving pain assessment and management across hospital and community settings, developing and revising clinical care pathways, promoting appropriate treatment, and supporting continuing education for healthcare professionals.

COMPETITIVELY FUNDED RESEARCH PROJECTS

• Conceived and served as Principal Investigator of the project “Toxicant associated fatty liver disease and toxicant associated steatohepatitis: a bench to bedside approach with identification of hepatotoxic agents in a large series of rat models and prospective validation in a human cohort of patients diagnosed as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)”, funded by the Italian Ministry of Health (Young Researchers Grant 2016; €288,000), 2018–2022.
• Contributed to the development of the protocol for the project “A multicenter, randomized, open-label Phase III study of two anti-angiogenic strategies in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma patients with cross-over at first-line failure: metronomic Capecitabine/Sorafenib (Arm A) vs Sorafenib/metronomic Capecitabine (Arm B)”, funded by the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA Call 2012; Project Lead: Prof. Giovanni Brandi), serving as Site Principal Investigator for the “Internal Medicine Bolondi Unit” from 2017 to 2019.
• Contributed to the development of the protocol for the project “Development of 3D models, preclinical tools and circulating biomarkers for the implementation of personalized therapeutic approaches in human hepatocellular carcinoma”, competitively funded by the University of Bologna (ALMAIDEA 2022; Project Lead: Prof. Francesca Fornari; €24,000), serving as Site Principal Investigator for the “Internal Medicine, Hepatobiliary and Immunoallergic Diseases Unit” from 2022 to 2025.
• Contributed to the development of the protocol for the project “Development of neoantigen vaccine for HCC cure: from genomics of Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) integration in liver cells genome to immunological host response toward neoepitopes as novel immunotherapeutic approaches”, competitively funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (PRIN 2022; Project Lead: Dr Valeria Barili; €202,338), serving as Co-Principal Investigator and Site Principal Investigator for the “Internal Medicine, Hepatobiliary and Immunoallergic Diseases Unit” from 2023 to 2026.

LEADERSHIP, COORDINATION AND PARTICIPATION IN RESEARCH GROUPS

LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATION OF RESEARCH GROUPS

• Organized and led a national multicenter research group involving 15 centres, aimed at assessing the effectiveness and safety of cabozantinib for hepatocellular carcinoma in real-world clinical practice and investigating major prognostic factors.
• Organized and coordinates the ARTE Study Group, a national multicenter research network involving 31 centres, dedicated to evaluating the effectiveness and safety of immunotherapy and treatment sequencing for hepatocellular carcinoma in real-world clinical practice and investigating major prognostic factors.

COORDINATION OF RESEARCH GROUPS

• Coordinated an international multicenter research group investigating non-alcoholic steatohepatitis as a risk and prognostic factor for intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.
• Coordinated a national multicenter research group involving three Italian centres, focused on imaging features and prognosis of primary liver cancers other than pure hepatocellular carcinoma arising in cirrhotic livers, with particular emphasis on intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and combined hepatocellular-cholangiocarcinoma.

PARTICIPATION IN RESEARCH GROUPS

• Member of the ITA.LI.CA national multicenter group (24 Italian centres), dedicated to the study of hepatocellular carcinoma in Italy.
• Member of the ARPES national multicenter group (7 Italian centres), established to investigate clinical, laboratory and imaging factors associated with survival in patients receiving sorafenib for unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma.
• Participated in the international multicenter CheckMate 040 study, evaluating the safety and efficacy of nivolumab plus ipilimumab in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma previously treated with sorafenib.

INVITED SPEAKER AND FACULTY AT NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CONGRESSES AND COURSES

Invited speaker or faculty member at numerous national and international congresses, courses and scientific meetings since 2015, mainly in the fields of hepatology, hepatocellular carcinoma, ultrasonography and celiac disease. Selected invitations include:

• ILCA School of Liver Cancer (Bologna, 2018);
• EASL Clinical School of Abdominal Sonography (Rotterdam, 2018);
• EASL International Liver Congress (Vienna, 2019);
• 56th AISF Annual Meeting (Rome, 2024);
• EASL International Liver Congress (Barcelona, 2026), Co-Chair of the session “EASL/DHILI Do’s and Don’ts in Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor (ICI)-Induced Liver Injury”.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS FOR RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

• Best Poster Award at the 2016 National Congress of the Italian Society of Internal Medicine for the presentation “A Relative Deficiency of Lysosomal Acid Lipase Activity Characterizes Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease”.
• Best Poster Award at the 2017 National Congress of the Italian Society of Internal Medicine for the presentation “Impact of liver steatosis in patients with celiac disease treated with a gluten-free diet”.
• Travel Grant for the presentation of the poster “How often cancer patients treated with targeted therapies might receive suboptimal decisions about treatment duration? Inter-operator variability and source of discordance in the assessment of tumor response to sorafenib for hepatocellular carcinoma” (EASL HCC Summit, Geneva, 2017).
• Travel Grant for the presentation of the poster “Prognostic scores for sorafenib-treated hepatocellular carcinoma patients: a validation study of the HAP and SAP scores” (EASL HCC Summit, Geneva, 2018).
• “Top Reviewer in Cross-Field 2019” recognition awarded by Publons (Clarivate Analytics).
• Certificate of Merit and Award for Best Presentation from the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna within the “Top Ten in Medical Sciences” lecture series (2023).

EDITORIAL ROLES AND PEER-REVIEW ACTIVITIES

• Associate Editor, Frontiers in Medicine, since 2024.
• Associate Editor, Frontiers in Oncology, since 2022.
• Editorial Board Member, World Journal of Hepatology, in 2017 and again since 2018.
• Editorial Board Member, Hepatoma Research, since 2024, after serving on its Junior Editorial Board from 2021 to 2024.
• Peer reviewer for Lancet Oncology, Gastroenterology, Journal of Hepatology, Hepatology and more than 30 additional indexed scientific journals, as documented by Clarivate Analytics.