SLU LIVER CENTER SEED GRANT BRINGS NEW GRANT FUNDING FOR AJAY JAIN, M.D.
SLU Liver Center Seed Grant Results in New External Grant Funding for Dr. Ajay Jain
April, 2019
Physician researcher, Ajay Jain, M.D., a SLUCare pediatric hepatologist and gastroenterologist received a Saint Louis University Liver Center seed grant of $25,000 in 2015. Due to important research data gained from use of these seed grant funds, Dr. Jain was able to successfully secure ten additional external research grants which amounted to over $1.45 million in funding for new research projects. Congratulations Dr. Jain!
Dr. Ajay Jain treats pediatric patients with serious digestive diseases, including liver disease, intestinal failure, and conditions requiring total parenteral nutrition. He is actively involved in research on the topics of gastric bypass, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), total parenteral nutrition, liver transplantation, and more.
Dr. Jain is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Gastroenterology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. He is Medical Director for Pediatric Liver Transplantation and Chairman of the Nutritional Advisory Committee at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Jain’s professional memberships include the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition and the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition. He is active with the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS)/Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.
Over the last 16 years, Friends of the Saint Louis University Liver Center has raised over $4.5 million to support research and education for the Saint Louis University Liver Center. A total of 42 Liver Center seed grants have been awarded to its members over the past 13 years through a Request For Applications (RFA) process. These directed research grants were established to provide bridge or seed grant funding to Liver Center investigators while they work toward developing their projects, gathering preliminary data allowing them to submit grant applications to secure larger amounts of external funding, such as that from the National Institutes of Health and publish their results.
To date, the 42 grants that were awarded total $1,197,482 and additionally $140,506 of research equipment and laboratory research supplies have been purchased. These seed grant funds generated 32 NIH, VA and foundation awards totaling over $20 million, which represents more than a 16 fold, return on investment.
More than 1,000 original papers, chapters, reviews and editorials were published by Liver Center members in the past 13 years.
A quote from a member of the Saint Louis University Liver Center:
“We at the SLULC see every day the impact of liver disease on our patients and their families and are passionate about providing the best care for our patients. We are not satisfied with the status quo and constantly seek new and better ways to prevent and treat liver disease. It’s through the support of the Friends of the SLULC that we are able to initiate projects that will lead to new treatments. Those of us involved in clinical and basic research in liver disease are all too familiar with the difficulties in obtaining funding for our research, especially novel, promising ideas that need enough supportive data to present a successful grant application to federal and other sources for major funding. The funding provided by the Friends of the SLULC in support of seed and bridge grants has been critical to get these projects off the ground and in many cases have led to successful external funding”.
–Brent A. Tetri, MD, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Providing national leadership in the field of Hepatology, the Liver Center is staffed by some of the highest-profile doctors and research scientists in the nation. The Saint Louis University Liver Center has over 50 members, hosts regular research conferences, holds monthly meetings and journal clubs and is a funding source for clinical and basic investigation within the University. Numerous original papers have been published through the collaborative effort of center members as well as external grant applications consisting of strong collaboration among members. The Liver Center is able to apply new technologies discovered by basic research to the medical care of patients with liver disease.
The Friends of the Saint Louis University Liver Center, is a charitable not-for-profit organization devoted to raising money to support liver disease research and education at the Saint Louis University Liver Center. By supporting Friends of the Saint Louis University Liver Center, you are directly making a difference in the lives of thousands of St. Louis community members because of the work done at the Saint Louis University Liver Center.
