Extracellular matrix biomarkers for hepatic fibrosis and disease endotyping

PhD defence by Emilie Toft Skovgaard

Assessment Committee

Associate professor Morten Schak Nielsen, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Copenhagen (Chairperson)
Associate professor Mads Israelsen, University of Southern Denmark (SDU)
Associate professor Mattias Ekstedt, Linköping University

Supervisors

Professor Jens Peter Gøtze
Diana Julie Leeming
Alejandro Enrique Mayorca Guiliani

Department

Department of Biomedical Sciences

Graduate Programme

Basic Metabolic Research

Place

Building: Building 9, Room: Henrik Dam Auditoriet, Blegdamsvej 3B, DK-2200 København N

Email address to gain access to the thesis: emilieskovgaard@live.dk.
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Short description of the thesis

Chronic liver disease is a growing global health challenge, largely driven by steatotic liver disease and characterized by substantial patient heterogeneity. While liver biopsy remains the clinical gold standard, its invasive nature and limitations highlight the need for better noninvasive tools. This PhD explores how blood-based biomarkers reflecting key biological processes, including fibrogenesis, inflammation, and immune activity, may improve disease characterization in advanced chronic liver disease. This thesis demonstrated that assessing disease activity through blood-based biomarkers can quantitate disease heterogeneity in advanced chronic liver disease and have potential as prognostic tools. These findings may support the use of biomarker panels to capture disease heterogeneity and aid in disease endotyping, improve prognostication, and enable more personalized patient management.