On 21 April, as part of the Annual Congress of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (https://ilc-congress.eu/ EASL) held in Amsterdam, Dr. Salvador Augustin was awarded as the best young researcher in the field of Hepatology. Augustin, who just received last year an award forhttp://www.vhir.org/portal1/news-detail.asp?contentid=188959&contenttypeid=295 young researchers froim ICS, is part of the research group in http://www.vhir.org/portal1/grup-presentacio.asp?s=recerca&contentid=187009&idrefer=187010 Liver and Digestive Diseases at Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), led by Dr. Rafael Esteban.The prize is awarded by the biopharmaceutical company Gilead within its project of International Research Scholars Program. In the picture can be seen Dr. Augustin receiving the award by Dr. Michael P. Manns, one of the members of the members of the committee. The prize is held annually and there are only three winners among the best groups specializing in hepatology of Europe, Middle East and Oceania. The program provides financial support of $ 130,000 for two years.Those selected were evaluated by a committee of experts in the field of liver disease, which took into account the curriculum of the researcher and his mentor, Dr. Esteban, as the research projects presented.The project carried out by Dr. Augustin is based on identifying the bacterial species in the intestinal microbiota that are beneficial for people with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NASH). Patients with this disease have fat accumulation, inflammation and damage of the liver cells. The problems associated with this disease are the hepatic cirrhosis, liver cancer, and hypertension of the portal vein, which leads the blood of most of the organs of the digestive system to the liver.The research group in Liver and Digestive Diseases has already conducted a study on this issue with rodents, which showed that transplantation of a healthy microbiota reduces portal hypertension in this disease. The next step by the team of Dr. Augustin will be to identify what species of bacteria are in the microbiota that can modulate blood pressure in the portal vein, this time also in patients with fatty liver.