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.

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 recent train derailment and vinyl chloride spill in East Palestine, OH. Importantly, grants such as the Hepatobiology & Toxicology COBRE and the Superfund serve as core resources to the country for disasters such as this.

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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. Ashutosh Barve is the 2021 recipient, while Drs. Endashaw Omer and Dipendra Parajuli are recent winners.

Dr. Luis Marsano

Dr. Ashutosh Barve

Dr. Endashaw Omer

Dr. Dipendra Parajuli

Congratulations!

• Congratulations to Dr. Ashwani Singal, who has just been named Associate Editor of Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology (CTG) an open access online journal published on behalf of the American College of Gastroenterology to publish innovative clinical work that impacts prevention, diagnosis and treatment of GI disorders, and translational research leading to best practices and cost-effective prevention/treatment strategies. Dr. Ashwani is Professor in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition and Medical Director of Liver Transplant.
• Congratulations to UofL researchers Drs. Vatsalya Vatsalya, Maiying Kong, Huirong Hu and Craig McClain on "The Beneficial effects of Lactobacillus GG Therapy on Liver and Drinking Assessments in Patients with Moderate Alcohol-Associated Hepatitis" published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, which was recently highlighted at the National External Advisory Council meeting of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. This innovative research evaluates how a specific probiotic and the microbiome can impact alcohol-use disorder and alcohol-induced liver injury.
• Congratulations to Drs. Stephen McClave and Keith Miller for another successful Nestle Nutrition Scholars Program at UofL. This is an intensive two-week course in nutrition and acute care and in nutrition and chronic diseases that is provided to senior house officers and faculty from around the country. The course are taught by international experts. For more information go to: https://www.nestlemedicalhub.com/program-information/nestle-nutrition-institute-clincial-nutrition-fellowship-for-physicians
• Congratulations to Dr. Ben Rogers, Assistant Professor of Medicine (Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition)!  He has been awarded the 2023 American Foregut Society 2023 Early Career Award. This prestigious award is bestowed by the AFS to an early career clinician-scientist demonstrating excellence in scientific inquiry, including basic science, clinical/translational, device development or educational research. He will be recognized during the annual AFS meeting in Dallas, TX, being held September 28-October 1, 2023.
• Congratulations to Dr. Banrida Wahlang, who is a new junior faculty member in the Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition. She has been awarded an NIH NIEHS K01 award to support a 3-year period of intensive, mentored research and career development under the guidance and support of a mentoring team led by Dr. Matt Cave. Her topic is "Evaluating mechanisms of sex differences in environmentally-induced metabolic diseases." This is an important topic and one that has not been previously addressed. Dr. Wahlang received her Ph.D. at UofL in the Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology. She joins two other GI faculty members with NIH K-awards. Congratulations to Dr. Wahlang!

Center Grant Renewals 2021

The University of Louisville has received a large National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant ($11,356,981) to renew the NIH-funded Hepatobiology and Toxicology Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (H&T COBRE) for another five years. This center is a unique thematic center focused on liver injury/disease and toxicology. This grant funds large research projects for four junior faculty investigators as well as pilot projects and core laboratory facilities Two of the major projects are examining aspects of liver cancer, another project studies non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and the fourth investigates alcohol associated liver disease. The H&T COBRE brings together experienced senior mentors/investigators and promising junior investigators to perform cross-cutting research on the unique topics of Hepatobiology and Toxicology. We address critical barriers in our understanding of the development progression of liver disease and we define targets for prevention/treatment that could transform clinical practice. During the first five years of this grant, four of the funded mentored junior investigators received independent NIH research funding and more than $75M in total new grant funding was received by H&T COBRE members. Thus, this program has been highly successful and will continue to be with the renewal grant.

The University of Louisville Alcohol Research Center (ULARC) has been renewed for another five-year cycle. Funded by the NIH, the ULARC was created to serve as a regional/national resource to foster interdisciplinary collaborative research on the role of nutrition as a co-factor in alcohol induced organ injury and as a possible therapeutic intervention to prevent and treat this organ injury. Both of these aspects of the interactions of nutrition and alcohol represent important unmet research needs. The theme of the center is unique among alcohol centers: the role of nutrition in the development/progression and prevention/treatment of alcohol-induced organ injury Importantly, almost all subjects with alcohol use disorder (AUD) have alterations in nutrition, especially those with alcohol-induced organ injury. Nutrition impacts critical aspects of organ dysfunction ranging from intestinal barrier dysfunction to epigenetics. We explore interactions of nutrition and alcohol abuse in the development of alcohol-induced organ dysfunction, and we evaluate diverse potential nutritional preventive/therapeutic interventions. Indeed, a major goal of the ULARC is prevention/treatment of alcohol-induced organ injury with nutritional agents and products (novel probiotics, edible exosomes, and specific lipids are only some of the agents used by the ULARC investigators).

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 first five Meisenheimer GI Fellows recently graduated and are pictured at right with their commemorative Louisville Slugger bats.

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.

Our website is a major source of patient care, educational, and social information.

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.