Application Submission Deadline: October 15, 2010
Recipient Notification: February 2011
Award Period: July 1, 2011 - June 30, 2012
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The AASLD/LIFER Clinical and Translational Research Fellowship in Liver Diseases Award is intended to foster career development for an individual outside North America to perform clinical research within the United States in a liver-related area and who has shown commitment to excellence at an early stage of his or her research study. The award ensures that a significant portion of a young investigators’ time is protected for research, with an overall objective of enabling the investigator to develop an independent and productive research career in liver disease.
The 2010 recipient of the AASLD/LIFER Clinical and Translational Research Fellowship in Liver Diseases Award is Dr. Sarwa Darwish Murad, sponsored by the Mayo Clinic, Rochester for her research project entitled Efficacy of Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy Followed by Liver Transplantation for Hilar Cholangiocarcinoma: a Multi-center Review and mentored by Dr. Julie Heimbach. Upon completing her education at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Dr. Darwish Murad moved to the United States to begin her internal medicine residency at the Mayo Clinic. Although she had previous interest in liver transplantation, it was during a rotation in the liver transplantation unit at Mayo Clinic that her true calling became evident. Dr. Darwish Murad’s ultimate ambition is to become a transplant hepatologist with a solid clinical and academic practice. She plans to continue pursuing research with the goal of facilitating collaboration with the international liver transplant community.
Eligibility Requirements
In order to be eligible for this award, the applicant must adhere to the following guidelines:
- Applicant must possess a doctoral degree, either an MD or equivalent and/or a PhD from an institution outside North America.
- Applicant is within four years of completing gastroenterology or hepatology training, or if a PhD, within four years of the receipt of the degree, at the start of the award period. (A parental leave of absence can not be counted towards the four years of eligibility.)
- Applicant must identify a sponsoring U.S. institution and a research mentor that is an AASLD member who agrees in writing to supervise his or her research.
- Applicant must have a student or trainee Visa to the U.S.
- Project is clinical. “Clinical Research” is defined as studies related to patients or disease processes having direct contact between the principal investigator and humans. Clinical research includes epidemiology and clinical trials in liver disease. At least 50 percent effort should be devoted to research activities.
- Applicant is a member of AASLD.
- All applications must be in English.
AASLD thanks the donors to the New Challenges – New Solutions Campaign and the Liver Research Fund whose support makes many of the 2010 AASLD Research and Career Development Awards possible. This includes independent educational grants from: Astellas Transplant, Axcan Pharma, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals/Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences, GlaxoSmithKline, Human Genome Sciences, LIFER, The Roche Foundation, Roche Molecular Diagnostics, Salix Pharmaceuticals, Schering-Plough, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
The 2010 AASLD/LIFER Clinical and Translational Research Fellowship in Liver Diseases Award is made possible by a grant from the Liver Institute and Foundation for Education and Research (LIFER). AASLD is also providing support of this award from its own operating funds.
Questions? Contact Denise Seise or Kristin Hutcherson via email at awards@aasld.org or by phone at 703-299-9766.