The award reflects the AEEH’s commitment to promoting excellence in biomedical research on liver diseases.
The AEEH grants this recognition annually to researchers whose scientific activity stands out for its quality, impact and future potential in the study of liver diseases. The distinction includes financial support, an invitation to present her research line at the AEEH Annual Congress, and institutional backing to help consolidate her scientific career.
Dr Baiges is a member of the Liver Disease and Vascular System (LiVas) IDIBAPS research group, led by Dr Virginia Hernández Gea, and of the CIBEREHD group, led by Dr Juan Carlos García Pagán. Her research career focuses on hepatic encephalopathy, frailty and sarcopenia in liver diseases.
Her research aims to develop new therapies for hepatic encephalopathy and to better understand how functional status and physiological reserve influence prognosis and improve risk prediction, while also identifying ways to optimise these factors to enhance patient resilience and survival.
Anna Baiges conducts her research in the fields of portal hypertension, hepatic vascular diseases and hepatic microcirculation—three key areas for understanding the complications of cirrhosis and related disorders. Her work is part of the Clínic-IDIBAPS research programme aimed at unraveling the haemodynamic mechanisms that lead to increased portal pressure and its clinical consequences.
In recent years, Dr Baiges has contributed to several national and international multicentre studies and publications that have helped to characterise the natural history of PSVD. These include evidence on disease evolution and prognosis, the role of the hepatic venous pressure gradient in the persistence of varices after resolution of the underlying liver disease, and the impact of SARS‑CoV‑2 vaccination in patients with hepatic vascular diseases, within the VALDIG network.
Her involvement in leading collaborative initiatives, including AEEH and CIBEREHD consensus documents on the diagnosis and management of portal hypertension, demonstrates her growing scientific leadership in this field. Receiving the Rising Star award consolidates this trajectory and positions her as one of the international references in the study of hepatic vascular pathophysiology, while also strengthening the visibility of the Clínic-IDIBAPS group. The group focuses both on developing new treatments for vascular diseases and on improving the management of portal hypertension complications, with the aim of reducing their clinical impact and improving patient outcomes.
