The AASLD Liver Scholar Award is a three-year, basic science award that endeavors to encourage young investigators to pursue a career in liver-related research. The goal of the Liver Scholar Award is to provide young scientists with support for their research to bridge the gap between completion of research training and attainment of status as an independent research scientist. The additional research experience provided by this award is intended to enable them to successfully compete for research grants from national sources, particularly the NIH. The long-term goal is to attract well-trained investigators, who hold MD, PhD or MD/PhD degrees, to a career in liver disease research.
The 2009 recipients of the AASLD Liver Scholar Awards are:
Dr. Alexander G. Miethke, sponsored by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and mentored by Dr. Jorge A. Bezerra, for his research project entitled Regulatory T Cells and the Pathogenesis of Biliary Atresia. Upon completion of postdoctoral studies at the Institute for Anatomy, Free University Berlin, Dr. Miethke joined Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center for his pediatric internship and residency. He then continued on to hold fellowships in pediatric gastroenterology and transplant hepatology under the mentorship of Dr. Bezerra and Dr. William Balistreri respectively. Dr. Miethke's goal during the award period is to develop a research program that addresses mechanistic questions about pathogenesis of biliary injury and to discover non-transplant treatment options for immune-mediated bile-duct injury in children.
Dr. Ekihiro Seki, sponsored by the University of California, San Diego and mentored by Dr. David A. Brenner, for his research project entitled Innate Immunity Regulates Hepatic Fibrosis. Dr. Seki began his career in liver research in Japanat the Hyogo College of Medicine, where he held his surgery residency and received his PhD in immunology. Upon completion of his PhD work he joined Dr. Brenner's laboratory at Columbia University as a postdoctoral research fellow. Dr. Seki will be drawing on his experience in both clinical and basic science to better understand the molecular pathophysiology of liver diseases with long-term goals of finding clinically relevant concepts of disease mechanisms and novel approaches to therapy.
Support from Gilead Sciences for one Liver Scholar is gratefully acknowledged. In addition, AASLD is supporting one Liver Scholar from its own operating funds.
Current AASLD Liver Scholars
2008 - 2011
Costica Aloman, MD
Mount Sinai Medical School
2007 – 2010
Rongze Yang, MD, PhD
University of Maryland Baltimore
Project Title: Isoform-Specific ALT Assay and its Application in Liver Disease
Carlo Spirli, PhD
Yale University
Project Title: Epithelial Angiogenic Signaling in Polycystic Diseases of the Liver
2006 – 2009
Lynette A. Gillis, MD
Vanderbilt University
Project Title: Mitochondrial Short-Chain 3-Hydroxyacyl-CoA Dehydrogenase in Hyperinsulinism and Hepatic Steatosis
Li Wang, PhD
The University of Kansas Medical Center
Project Title: Nuclear Receptor SHP – Mediated Regulation of Hepatic Lipid Homeostasis
Previous AASLD Liver Scholars
Dr. Ana J Coito (2001)
Dr. David N Frick (2001)
Dr. Mauricio Loureiro-Silva (2003)
Dr. Bradley Aouizerat (2004)
Dr. Antonia Follenzi (2005)
Dr. Arumugam R Jayakumar (2005)