Leading Researchers
Ramon Bataller, MD, PhD
Clinical and Research Interests: I am a liver physician-scientist. My clinical interests include the management of patients with alcoholic and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and critically-ill cirrhotic patients. I have worked the last ten years in a multidisciplinary team to treat patients with alcoholic liver disease. My main research interests include liver fibrosis and the mechanisms and determinants of mortality of alcoholic liver disease. I have mostly performed translational studies including human samples and experimental models of liver disease. Also, I recently started a line of research on global public health aspects of alcoholic liver disease. I am currently the overall PI of a NIH-funded consortium (InTeam) for translational research of alcoholic hepatitis. The main goals of the InTeam consortium are the identification of molecular subtypes and the identification of novel targets for therapy. Ongoing Research Studies: Metabolic and transcription factor reprogramming in alcoholic hepatitis. By combining RNAseq and metabolic studies from human samples, we have found profound changes in glucose metabolism and also decreased activity of transcription factors that regulate hepatocyte metabolic function.
Juan Pablo Arab, MD
Dr. Arab is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition of Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. He serves as the Director of Alcohol Sciences at the Stravitz-Sanyal Institute for Liver Disease and Metabolic Health. Dr. Arab trained as Gastroenterologist and Transplant Hepatologist specialist at the Catholic University of Chile and at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. Dr. Arab’s research in alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) has truly refined the clinical hepatology practice and our understanding of this common disease. Dr. Arab is an Associate Editor for Hepatology (flagship AASLD journal). He is currently the Chair of the Special Interest Group on ALD of the AASLD and ALEH. Additionally, he is the Past-Chair of the Education & Scholarship Committee of the International Liver Transplantation Society (ILTS) and the Co-Chair of the multi-society ALD working group (bringing together the 4 major liver societies in the world). Dr. Arab research has been funded by the NIH, AASLD Foundation, and the Chilean and Canadian governments. He has received multiple awards including the prestigious AASLD/LIFER award for Clinical Research in Liver Diseases. Only in the last 2 years, Dr. Arab has published in the NEJM, The Lancet, Nature Gastroenterology, Lancet Gastroenterology, and all major journals on the specialty. He has published more than 250 peer-reviewed papers, co-authored several book chapters and authored multiple clinical practice guidelines on ALD, MASLD and hepatorenal syndrome.
