Dr. Monga is an Associate Professor of Pathology and Medicine and the Chief of the Division of Experimental Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine. His research interests in liver patho-biology are focused on understanding the molecular basis of liver development, regeneration, growth and cancer. His laboratory identified the role of Wnt/β-catenin signaling in liver development and regeneration. Activation of β-catenin during early liver development is essential for expansion of hepatoblasts and for their temporal differentiation into bile ducts and later for hepatocyte maturation. β-Catenin activation is essential for normal liver regeneration process. His group has generated many models to enable mechanistic insights into the regulation of this pathway in liver health and disease. He is also performing preclinical studies to target β-catenin in HCC, where aberrant activation of β-catenin has been observed in a significant subset of patients. At the same time efforts in his laboratory are underway to identify additional molecular aberrations in HCC to identify novel therapeutic targets of this disease. Dr. Monga is a member of the hepatobiliary pathophysiology (HBPP) study section at the NIH. He is an Associate Editor for the American Journal of Pathology and BMS Cancer and on Editorial Board of many journals including Hepatology. He is the Program chair for the American Society of Investigative Pathology, member of Basic Research Committee of AASLD and was also elected to organize the FASEB Summer Research conference on Liver in 2010.