Varinder Athwal

Varinder Athwal is an Honorary Lecturer (Teaching & Research) at the University of Manchester's Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology & Gastroenterology. His research focuses on liver diseases, hepatocellular carcinoma, and cystic fibrosis-related hepatotoxicity. He has contributed to studies on healthcare inequities in liver cancer care and diagnostic strategies for chronic liver disorders.

Education: PhD in Hepatology (2013) from University of Manchester, supervised by Prof. Piper Hanley and Prof. Hanley, focusing on SOX9's role in liver fibrosis diagnostics.

Research Interests:

• Liver fibrosis mechanisms
• Early biomarker identification for hepatocellular carcinoma
• Impact of CFTR modulators on liver function
• Healthcare disparities in liver cancer outcomes

Key Projects:

• Interrogating HCC in HD (2025-2026): Co-Investigator for spatial transcriptomics-based biomarker discovery
• ID-LIVER Project (2020-2024): Co-Investigator for early liver disease diagnostics

Awards: NIHR Early Career Leadership Award (2020) recognizing contributions to hepatology research.

Media Engagement: Featured in articles discussing liver cancer detection technologies and public health implications of cancer survivability.