Emory Division of Digestive Diseases Division Director, Frank Anania, MD partnered with Emory Department of Pediatric’s Saul Karpen, MD, PhD to receive a “Ruth L. Kirschenstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Institutional Research Training Grant” (Parent T32). The goal of the training grant is to prepare outstanding post-doctoral (MD, MD/PhD or PhD) researchers for successful and impactful careers in translational gastroenterology and hepatology.
About the Ruth L. Kirschstein Institutional National Research Service Award (T32)
National Research Service Award (NRSA) awards support the training of biomedical, behavioral, and clinical researchers through individual pre- and postdoctoral fellowships, and institutional research training grants. Learn more.
Saul Karpen, MD, PhD
Dr. Karpen is a highly accomplished Pediatric Hepatologist and scientist with extensive grant support. He has experience training postdoctoral fellows and the trainees under the proposed mentors have published extensively. A large number of his trainees have gone on to academic or industrial research or equivalent jobs.
About Frank Anania, MD, FACP, AGAF, FAASLD
Frank Anania, MD, FACP, AGAF, FAASLD
Dr. Frank Anania’s laboratory currently has two major focuses. At present, the lab studies hepatic fibrosis and examines the role of the matricellular protein periostin. Although periostin is most often associated with bone and embryologic development of the heart, their lab has demonstrated that it may be the master regulator of hepatic fibrosis by altering the liver stiffness of injured liver. Another major focus of Anania’s lab is related to the pathogenesis of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). In the near future, NASH will be the most common etiology of cirrhosis. In conjunction with their collaborators, they have developed a powerful mouse model of NASH to study a unique microbiome associated with severe liver injury. In addition, the lab has additional ongoing projects related to alcoholic liver disease, and they are continuing their investigation of glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and its pharmacologic grade analogues for the treatment of NASH in humans. In these studies, they are discovering how GLP-1 proteins can reduce fatty liver disease, which could help slow disease progression, especially in type 2 diabetes mellitus. The lab has a longstanding interest in training students and postdoctoral fellows, and they have extensive collaborations with many of the investigators in the newly awarded NIH Training Grant. Read more about the Anania Digestive Diseases lab.
Related Links
- Emory University Department of Medicine
- Emory Division of Digestive Diseases
- Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
