The annual Gastro Highlights training event, held at the university Hospital Zurich last autumn, also celebrated the 60th birthday of prof.Dr.med. Michael Fried, who initiated this widely recognized event 17 years ago. Featured at the symposium was a round up of the most important new discoveries in the field of gastroenterology and hepatology to be published during the course of the previous year or represented at the Digestive Disease Week (DDW). To mark the birthday of Prf. Dr. med. Michael Fried, two international experts made a special report on the key developments in the gastroenterology to emerge over the past decades.