Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition
Welcome to the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition. Our mission is to provide high quality clinical care, superior education for trainees and postgraduate physicians, to conduct research with scientific rigor, to publish our findings in high impact medical journals and present at scientific meetings, and participate in the academic goals of the Department of Medicine. We offer excellence in medical care for the spectrum of gastrointestinal and liver diseases, and we are committed to diversity in education, patient care and research.
We continually strive for excellence and to maintain our standing as a highly successful and respected educational institution.
We are committed to improving the understanding of disease states from bench to bedside. Our internationally-renowned faculty maintain a commitment to teaching students, residents, and fellows, and developing the next generation of outstanding gastroenterologists.
Our website is a major source of patient care, educational, and social information.
MERPS/TERPS
Dr. Matt Cave, Professor of Medicine (GI) and CIEHS Deputy Director, recently spearheaded a new initiative focused on military and Veterans' environmental health. The initiative has achieved early success, with four active DOD Toxic Exposure Research Program (TERP) awards and two more pending applications having recently received notices of intent to award (one TERP and one Military Exposure Research Program (MERP) VA Merit application).
Should those two pending applications be awarded, the six total awards will have a combined total direct cost of approximately $10M over the lifetime of these awards. Our initiative is comprehensive and investigates multiple relevant exposures (PFAS, dioxins, VOCs, PM, etc.) through basic, clinical, and translational research studies.
Liver Team Helps Develop ACG Practice Guidelines
The new American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) practice guidelines for nutrition and liver disease have now been published. Drs. Ashwani Singal and Craig McClain played important roles in this undertaking.
Both were members of the ACG Committee that determined the Guidelines and Dr. McClain chaired the committee and was last/senior author, and Dr. Singal was first author on the paper.
Dr. McClain also did a podcast on the Guidelines.
GI well represented at 2025 Gordon Conference
Drs. Craig McClain, Shirish Barve and Leila Gobejishvili from the Departments of Medicine and Physiology and the NIH-funded UofL Alcohol Research Center (ULARC) had leading roles at the recent Gordon Conference on Alcohol-Induced End Organ Diseases held March 16-21 in Ventura, CA.
Dr. McClain (Professor of Medicine) gave the keynote address and Drs. Barve (Professor of Medicine) and Gobejishvili (Assoc. Professor of Physiology and Medicine) both gave invited presentations at this conference.!
Motility group leads GI presence at DDW
The GI Division had over 30 posters and presentation at Digestive Disease Week in San Diego, CA. Dr. Tom Abell's Motility team were leaders in presentations!
Congrats to Dr. Marsano!
Dr. Luis Marsano received both the HSC and University-wide award for Multi-cultural Teaching. This is a well deserved award recognizing Dr. Marsano's career of outstanding patient care, teaching and mentoring, particularly in the bedside setting.
Dr. Marsano has dedicated his life to his patients and students. Congratulations!
GI faculty among the world's most cited
Five researchers from the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition are among the top 2% most-cited in the world, according to a new list compiled by Stanford University and Elsevier. They are: Thomas Abell, M.D., Matthew Cave, M.D., Craig McClain, M.D., Stephen McClave, M.D., and Banrida Wahlang, Ph.D. Wenke Feng, Ph.D., formerly of the division was also included on the list. Congratulations to all!
UofL GI experts at the forefront of research into vinyl chloride health issues
Since the 1970s, UofL faculty, including liver specialists Drs. Matthew Cave and Craig McClain, have been working on environmental exposures and liver disease. They identified a form of liver disease, Toxicant Associated Steatohepatitis (TASH), from those samples. Thus, this has been a very important ongoing project between workers, industry and UofL.
This community-identified and joint research/surveillance program with UofL has thrust the university to the forefront nationally in this important emerging area of environmental health. The importance of vinyl chloride is still relevant, as shown from the train derailment and vinyl chloride spill in East Palestine, OH.
Importantly, grants such as the Hepatobiology & Toxicology COBRE, the Superfund, and the CIEHS (https://louisville.edu/ciehs) serve as core resources to the country for disasters such as this.
Most recently, UofL investigators, led by Dr. Matt Cave, have been exploring the potential link between industrial exposure to vinyl chloride and liver cancers in Calvert City, KY.
Luis Marsano GI Teaching Award
We take pride in our teaching efforts. Dr. Luis Marsano won the GI Teaching Award so many times that we named the award after him.
He has also been honored by his home medical school, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru, for Lifetime Teaching Excellence.
Dr. Nanlong "Nathan" Liu
2023, 2024, 2025
Dr. Endashaw Omer
2022
Dr. Ashutosh Barve
2021
Martin and Jill Meisenheimer Gastroenterology Fellows' Education Fund
Dr. Martin Meisenheimer, a 1971 graduate of UofL School of Medicine and gastroenterologist, and his wife Jill made a generous donation to the GI Fellowship Program.
Dr. Meisenheimer is an enthusiastic UofL Cardinal fan, and this gift to help support the fellowship program is greatly appreciated.
The 2025 Meisenheimer GI Fellows recently graduated and are pictured with their commemorative Louisville Slugger bats. This highly diverse Fellowship group will become leaders in our profession.
We continue to strive to bring previous fellows and alumni such as Dr. Meisenheimer into the GI "fold" and will be working to communicate with alumni on educational endeavors and how to link with UofL.
GI Section Videos
UofL receives $11.3 million grant for liver research center
McClain, Kirpich feature UofL's Alcohol Research Center
UofL Hospital opens new center to treat hepatitis C
Dr. Ashutosh Barve will serve as medical director of UofL Hospital's new hepatitis C clinic.
Cave earns $4 million NIEHS grant
Dr. Matthew Cave is awarded $4.01 million over eight years by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, a part of the National Institutes of Health, to explore the long-term effects of environmental chemicals on the liver.
McClain, UofL open NIH-designated Alcohol Research Center
Dr. Craig McClain and his team received a nearly $8 million grant from the NIH that designates them as an NIAAA Alcohol Research Center, one of only 20 in the nation.