Application Submission Deadline: October 15, 2010
Recipient Notification: February 2011
Award Period: July 1, 2011 - June 30, 2014
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The ALF 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 ALF 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.
*AASLD provides financial support for the AASLD/ALF Liver Scholar Awards.
The 2010 recipients of the AASLD/ALF Liver Scholar Awards are:
Dr. Udayan Apte, sponsored by University of Kansas Medical Center and mentored by Dr. Hartmut Jaeschke, for his research project entitled Wnt/β-catenin Signaling in Liver Regeneration Following Acetaminophen-induced Acute Liver Failure. Dr. Apte’s objective is to conduct long term independent academic research in liver biology and liver diseases to develop novel therapeutic options, with a particular interest in acetaminophen-induced (APAP) acute liver failure. Although APAP-induced hepatotoxicity has been studied for over four decades, there have been few changes in the clinical management and treatment of patients with APAP-induced acute liver failure, a field in which little is understood on the potential of regeneration based therapies. Dr. Apte’s overall research goal is to bring the ideas of these two research fields, APAP-induced acute liver failure and liver regeneration, together in order to develop novel regenerative therapies for acute liver failure.
Dr. Amal Dutta, sponsored by UT Southwestern Medical Center and mentored by Dr. Andrew P. Feranchak, for his research project entitled Regulation of Biliary Secretion and Bile Formation by the Ca2+-activated CI- channel TMEM16A. Dr. Dutta’s basic science training at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center has been focused on the application of electrophysiological approaches to the study of hepatobiliary transport. Utilizing advanced electrophysiological techniques, he plans to form an integrated approach to the study of biliary epithelial secretion and bile formation. Dr. Dutta’s long term objective is to form a fundamental understanding of hepatobiliary transport as a basis for new treatments for cholestatic liver diseases.
Dr. Takeshi Saito, sponsored by University of Washington and mentored by Dr. Michael J. Gale, for his research project entitled Identification of a Novel Host Innate Immune Factor that Regulates HCV. After receiving his medical degree, Dr. Saito trained in internal medicine, gastroenterology and hepatology at Showa University in Tokyo, Japan. It was here that he specialized in the care of patients with chronic hepatitis C and began investigation of the viral factors that contribute to HCV. His recent research is focused on the understanding of how host cell innate immune pathways sense HCV infection and initiate an immune response involving type I interferon and proinflammatory cytokines. Dr. Saito career goal is to become an independent physician-scientist with the skills and knowledge necessary for a career dedicated to translating discoveries in basic immunology and virology into clinical practice.
The 2009 recipients of the AASLD/ALF 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 Japan at 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.
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.
Additional grant support for the 2009 AASLD/ALF Liver Scholar Award from Gilead is gratefully acknowledged.
Additional grant support for the 2010 AASLD/ALF Liver Scholar Award from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Human Genome Sciences, The Roche Foundation, Salix Pharmaceuticals and Schering-Plough is gratefully acknowledged.
AASLD is also providing support for this program 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
Previous AASLD Liver Scholars
Dr. Bradley Aouizerat (2004)
Dr. Ana J Coito (2001)
Dr. Antonia Follenzi (2005)
Dr. David N Frick (2001)
Dr. Lynette A. Gillis (2006)
Dr. Arumugam R Jayakumar (2005)
Dr. Mauricio Loureiro-Silva (2003)
Dr. Li Wang (2006)