Emilio De Raffele graduated in Medicine in 1986 at the University of the Sacred Hearth School of Medicine, in Rome, magna cum laude, with a dissertation entitled “Experimental study on orthotopic hemiliver transplantation”. In 1991 he became Specialist in General Surgery, magna cum laude, at the University of Bologna. In 1997 he became Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Bologna with a dissertation entitled “Hepatitis C virus infection in liver transplantation. Prevalence, natural history and prognostic factors”. Over the last 30 years he has gained experience in the field of experimental liver transplantation in pigs, clinical liver and kidney transplantation and developed innovative research in the field of hepatitis B virus reinfection of the transplanted liver, on the role of the hepatitis C virus infection in the transplanted liver, including mechanisms of liver damage in case of reinfection after transplantation and mechanisms of viral interference in transplanted patients coinfected with hepatitis B, delta and C viruses. In more recent years he developed significant experience in hepato-biliary surgery, upper gastrointestinal surgery, abdominal surgery and more recently in laparoscopic abdominal surgery and is engaged in research activity in the field of techniques and results of liver surgery in primary and metastatic liver tumours, the role of intraoperative ultrasound in liver and pancreatic surgery, the technique and clinical outcome of ultrasound-guided conservative liver and pancreatic surgery, the clinical and oncological implications of simultaneous colorectal and liver resection in advanced colorectal cancer with liver metastases. In the same period he has been tutor of medical students, supervisor of young consultant surgeons, attending surgeons and residents, Assistant Professor at the School of Specialization in General Surgery of the University of Bologna, published SCI journal papers and book chapters and reviewed for many academic journals.