February 14, 2023 International Day of Women and Girls in Science: Meritxell Ventura-Cots Meet Meritxell Ventura-Cots, MD, PhD, staff member and clinical researcher at Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron, Spain, and member of our Inspiring and Writing Group.

In celebration of International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we want to raise awareness of the work of women in hepatology and inspire the next generation of budding scientists.

Meritxell is an Internal Medicine physician with extensive experience in Hepatology. She specialized in hepatic encephalopathy and alcohol-related liver disease during her doctoral and postdoctoral studies, respectively. She is currently the coordinator of the Alcohol-Related Liver Disease Group at Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron.

Her research interests include the changes of gut microbiome in alcoholic hepatitis and predictors of mortality. She aims to contribute to develop early diagnostic tools in alcohol-related liver disease and closing the health equity gap for patients with acoholic hepatis.

"Ever since I was a kid, I've been fascinated by biology and medicine! Using science to figure out what makes people feel pain and being able to help them is my motivation", says Meritxell.