Board Members




Max J. Schmulson

Giovanni Barbara, MD

Department of Digestive Diseases and Internal Medicine
University of Bologna, Italy


Giovanni Barbara graduated Summa cum Laude in Medicine at the University of Bologna, Italy. He subsequently qualified in Internal Medicine and then in Gastroenterology at the same University. He was trained partly in London, UK and completed a three years basic science post-doctoral research fellowship in neuro-immunology at McMaster University in Canada. Currently he is involved in clinical gastroenterology diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopy, teaching and research at the Department of Digestive Diseases and Internal Medicine of the University of Bologna.

Professor Barbara's main research interest relate to basic and clinical aspects of functional gastrointestinal disorders, neuro-immunology and host-microbiota interactions. He has authored more than 180 indexed peer-reviewed articles and reviews on these topics, published in various biomedical journals, including Gastroenterology, Gut, Journal of Clinical Investigation and Trends in Pharmachological Science. He is, or has been, a member of the Editorial Board of Gut, American Journal of Gastroenterology, Neurogastroenterology and Motility, the American Journal of Physiology and other international scientific Journals.

Professor Barbara has received numerous national and international awards including the Master Award in Gastroenterology from the American Gastroenterological Association. He is currently President of the European Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility (ESNM).