Julia Wattacheril, MD, MPH is an associate professor of medicine, physician scientist and director of the Metabolic Dysfunction Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD) program at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Her clinical and translational work spans the multidisciplinary care of MASLD patients at all stages of their disease to the investigation of rare genetic variants influencing the development and progression of MASLD before and after liver transplantation. She currently leads an interdisciplinary research group using machine learning to identify at-risk and protected phenotypes within the electronic health record (EHR) for multi-omic analysis.  Of particular interest for clinical outcomes discovered through EHR phenotyping include rapid progression to advanced liver disease, need for transplantation and hepatocellular carcinoma.  She recently was awarded the Department of Surgery Innovation Award and Columbia Department of Biomedical Engineering Ignition Award for these software applications as they move into medicine.

Wattacheril is the lead principal investigator for several clinical trials in MASLD. Her early pilot work with proteomics and lipidomics in the development of metabolic dysfunction associated steatohepatitis (MASH) led to her current efforts investigating the transcriptomic signatures associated with metabolic reprogramming associated with fibrotic MASH.  She co-led a multicenter consortium investigating the clinical risks associated with the development of hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with all etiologies of chronic liver disease, with a particular local focus on diverse populations.  At Columbia, she works closely with the Center for Precision Medicine and Genomics to integrate genomics into clinical care. She mentors across disciplines including computational geneticists to masters’ program students in nutrition to undergraduates in psychology.   She has a commitment to community education, including faith-based and non-profit sectors.