About Bertus Eksteen

Bertus Eksteen’s journey into medicine began with a passion for understanding how the human body fights disease. Born and raised in South Africa, he completed his MBChB at the University of Pretoria in 1996.
But he didn’t stop there. His hunger for knowledge took him abroad, earning him a membership in the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP) in London in 1998 before completing a PhD in immunology at the University of Birmingham.

In 2008, Bertus obtained a CCT in Gastroenterology and Hepatology, plus a Fellowship (FRCP) with the Royal College of Physicians in 2011. That blend of clinical practice and research training laid the foundation for a career devoted to advancing healthcare for patients living with complex, chronic diseases.

Today, Dr. Bertus Eksteen calls Calgary, Alberta, home. He leads an internationally recognized liver research program at the Aspen Woods Clinic. The clinic now ranks among the world’s largest sites for Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) and Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD clinical trials under his leadership.

The Aspen Woods Clinic has a catchment area that includes Southern Alberta, eastern British Columbia, and western Saskatchewan. It also has formal relationships with several biotech companies to develop novel therapeutics for PSC.

Dr. Eksteen’s impact also stretches into organ transplantation, where he’s part of the Southern Alberta Liver Transplant Clinic at the Foothills Hospital in Calgary. Additionally, he holds the Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine position at the University of Calgary, where he plays a vital role in guiding the next generation of gastroenterologists and hepatologists through education and mentorship.

Innovation has defined Bertus’ scientific career. One of his first discoveries was how mucosal T-cells are skewed in diseases such as PSC and IBD. His work shed light on how gut-immune cells attack and damage the liver—a discovery that changed how the scientific community understands autoimmune diseases affecting the liver.

Dr. Bertus Eksteen also united a PSC patient cohort of over 400 individuals. This group has been instrumental in discovering and publishing nine newly recognized genetic risk loci for PSC through collaborations with the International PSC Study Group.

He has held major research funding from the Medical Research Council in the UK and in Canada including serving previously as the national co-lead Principal Investigator with Dr. Moayyedi for the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) SPOR program to investigating the role of gut microbiome in IBD.

As Principal Investigator, Dr. Eksteen led another CIHR Signature Initiative focused on chronic inflammatory diseases. Bertus has also led advancements in clinical endoscopic imaging of the bile ducts to detect early dysplasia in patients with PSC and IBD—a move that has transformed how doctors catch and manage pre-cancerous changes.

Bertus isn’t just a doctor and scientist and a powerful advocate. He is Chair of the Specialty Care Alliance and the Joint Physician Advocacy Committee (JPAC) for the Alberta Medical Association (AMA).

In these roles, he is the voice of the specialist physicians in critical negotiations with the Alberta government. One of his primary objectives is to help fix the healthcare system by fostering better collaboration among specialists and primary care doctors.

He supports models that increase patient choice, improve access to specialty services, and create a more sustainable and efficient healthcare system for all Albertans.