Dr. Mª Pilar Ballester Ferré
Emerging Investigator
Research Group on Neurological Impairment
Presentation
Graduate in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Valencia and specialist in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University Clinical Hospital of Valencia. During her degree, she obtained a collaboration scholarship with the Department of Physiology of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Valencia. She completed the master’s degree in “Research in Clinical Medicine” from the University Miguel Hernández of Elche. She received a Rio Hortega contract (CM19/00011) from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III that allowed her to combine her training in clinical and translational research with healthcare activity in the Digestive Disease Department of the University Clinical Hospital of Valencia. She obtained her PhD in Medicine in February 2021, focused on the study of immune dysfunction associated with minimal hepatic encephalopathy in patients with cirrhosis, with “cum laude” mention and extraordinary doctorate award from the University of Valencia. She completed a predoctoral stay at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, USA, an international reference center in liver transplantation, under the supervision of Dr. Ramón Bataller. For this stay she received funding from Sociedad Valenciana de Patología Digestiva (SVPD) and INCLIVA Health Research Institute. She subsequently completed a postdoctoral stay at University College London, United Kingdom, supervised by Dr. Rajiv Jalan, for which she also received funding from INCLIVA Health Research Institute. During this stay she studied the role of ammonia in the pathogenesis and treatment of complications of cirrhosis, with the creation of the European AMMON consortium, which she currently coordinates. She has recently received the Juan Córdoba scholarship from the Spanish Association for the Study of the Liver (AEEH) to continue advancing in the study of complications of cirrhosis and has applied for her first patent through University College London. She has collaborated in 3 competitive projects from Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ramón Areces Foundation and Prometeo Program of Generalitat Valenciana and has received her first FIS project as principal investigator for 2024. She was one of the founders of the Young Group of the Spanish Association of Gastroenterology (AEG) and during 4 years she was part of its scientific committee. She is currently part of the translational scientific committee of the International Society of Hepatic Encephalopathy and Nitrogen Metabolism (ISHEN) and is a member of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL). As a result, she has presented more than 70 abstracts at national and international conferences with awards for the best poster and oral presentation at SVPD conference in 2016 and 2018, respectively. She has published 30 scientific articles with 50% as first author and 40% as corresponding, 53% of them in Q1 journals. At the same time, she has performed teaching tasks with co-tutoring of 5 final degree projects, 1 final master’s project and 2 PhDs.
Publications
Corrigendum to Development and validation of the AMMON-OHE model to predict risk of overt hepatic encephalopathy occurrence in outpatients with cirrhosis [J Hepatol 79(4) (2023 Oct) 967-976]. Ballester MP, Tranah TH, Balcar L, Fiorillo A, Ampuero J, Kerbert AJC, Thomsen KL, Escudero MD, Mandorfer M, Reiberger T, Shawcross DL, Romero-Gómez M, Montoliu C, Carbonell-Asins JA, Jalan R. Journal of Hepatology. 2023 Dec;79(6):1571. doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2023.10.013. PMID: 37919110
Development and validation of the AMMON-OHE model to predict risk of overt hepatic encephalopathy occurrence in outpatients with cirrhosis. Ballester M, Tranah T, Balcar L, Fiorillo A, Ampuero J, Kerbert A, Thomsen K, Escudero M, Mandorfer M, Reiberger T, Shawcross D, Romero-Gomez M, Montoliu C, Carbonell-Asins J, Jalan R. Journal of Hepatology. 2023 Oct;79(4):967-976. doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2023.05.022. PMID: 37277075
Extracorporeal liver support and liver transplantation for acute-on-chronic liver failure. Ballester M, Elshabrawi A, Jalan R. Liver International. 2023 Jun 14. doi: 10.1111/liv.15647. PMID: 37312660
Letter to the Editor – Reply to ‘Ammonia – an old friend with a new area of application. Tranah TH, Ballester MP, Carbonell-Asins JA, Jalan R, Shawcross DL. Journal of Hepatology. 2023 Jan;78(1):e23-e26. doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2022.09.023. PMID: 36216137
Automated whole-liver MRI segmentation to assess steatosis and iron quantification in chronic liver disease. Marti-Aguado D, Jimenez-Pastor A, Alberich-Bayarri A, Rodriguez-Ortega A, Alfaro-Cervello C, Mestre-Alagarda C, Bauza M, Gallen-Peris A, Valero-Perez E, Ballester MP, Gimeno-Torres M, Perez-Girbes A, Benlloch S, Perez-Rojas J, Puglia V, Ferrandez A, Aguilera V, Escudero-Garcia D, Serra MA, Marti-Bonmati L. Radiology. 2022 Feb;302(2):345-354. doi: 10.1148/radiol.2021211027. PMID: 34783592
Metabolic syndrome is associated with poor response to rifaximin in minimal hepatic encephalopathy. Ballester M, Gallego J, Fiorillo A, Casanova-Ferrer F, Gimenez-Garzo C, Escudero-Garcia D, Tosca J, Rios M, Monton C, Durban L, Ballester J, Benlloch S, Urios A, San-Miguel T, Kosenko E, Serra M, Felipo V, Montoliu C. Scientific Reports. 2022 Feb 14;12(1):2463. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-06416-z. PMID: 35165326
Minimal hepatic encephalopathy is associated to alterations in eye movements. Casanova-Ferrer F, Garcia-Cena CE, Gallego JJ, Fiorillo A, Urios A, Calvo-Cordoba A, Ballester MP, Rios MP, Durban L, Hidalgo MR, Garcia F, Felipo V, Montoliu C. Scientific Reports. 2022 Oct 7;12(1):16837. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-21230-3. PMID: 36207472
Plasma ammonia levels predict hospitalisation with liver-related complications and mortality in clinically stable outpatients with cirrhosis. Tranah T, Ballester M, Carbonell-Asins J, Ampuero J, Alexandrino G, Caracostea A, Sanchez-Torrijos Y, Thomsen K, Kerbert A, Capilla-Lozano M, Romero-Gomez M, Escudero-Garcia D, Montoliu C, Jalan R, Shawcross D. Journal of Hepatology. 2022 Dec;77(6):1554-1563. doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2022.07.014. PMID: 35872326
Patients with Minimal Hepatic Encephalopathy Show Altered Thermal Sensitivity and Autonomic Function. Rega D, Aiko M, Penaranda N, Urios A, Gallego J, Gimenez-Garzo C, Casanova F, Fiorillo A, Cabrera-Pastor A, San-Miguel T, Ipiens C, Escudero-Garcia D, Tosca J, Monton C, Ballester M, Ballester J, Aparicio L, Rios M, Durban L, Mir A, Kosenko E, Cases P, Felipo V, Montoliu C. Journal of Clinical Medicine. 2021 Jan 11;10(2):E239. doi: 10.3390/jcm10020239. PMID: 33440769
Risk factors and management strategies associated with non-response to aminosalicylates for maintenance treatment in ulcerative colitis. Marti-Aguado D, Ballester M, Minguez M. Revista Espanola de Enfermedades Digestivas. 2021 Jun;113(6):447-453. doi: 10.17235/reed.2021.7797/2021. PMID: 33569968
Surgical treatment of an intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm of the biliary tract diagnosed by SpyGlass®. Martí Fernandez R, Garces Albir M, Ballester Ferre M, Dorcaratto D, Villagrasa Manzano R, Muñoz Forner E, Gómez Adrián J, Sanchiz Soler V, Sabater Orti L, Ortega Serrano J. Revista espanola de enfermedades digestivas : organo oficial de la Sociedad Espanola de Patologia Digestiva. 2021 Jan;113(1):45-47. doi: 10.17235/reed.2020.7122/2020. doi: 10.17235/reed.2020.7122/2020. PMID: 33054282
Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt reduces hospital care burden in patients with decompensated cirrosis. Ballester M, Lluch P, Gomez C, Capilla M, Tosca J, Marti-Aguado D, Guijarro J, Minguez M. Internal and Emergency Medicine. 2021 Sep;16(6):1519-1527. doi: 10.1007/s11739-020-02602-x. PMID: 33400160
+ Info
Doctoral candidate: Ballester Ferré, Maria Pilar
Director(s): Montoliu Félix, Carmina; Escudero García, Desamparados; Serra Desfílis Miguel Ángel
Date of the defense: 08/01/2021
University: Universitat de València