Our Story
Reasons to support the friends of the Saint Louis University Liver Center:
* The Saint Louis University Liver Center enjoys worldwide recognition as a center
of excellence.
* Hepatitis C affects 5 million people in the United States. One in 50 people have
Hepatitis C and nearly two-thirds of those people do not know they have it. Hepatitis C can be diagnosed with a simple blood test and is now curable in about 99% of patients.
* Between 30 and 40 percent of adults in the United States have Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and it is the most common form of chronic liver disease in US in adults and children. NAFLD can be divided into 2 categories: 1-NAFL in which the fat accumulation is not associated with much liver damage and 2-NASH (nonalcoholic steatohepatitis) in which there is liver damage.
NASH affects as many as 12 percent of U.S. adults or 30 million Americans (NIH).
There are no approved medications to treat NASH at this time. Much research for NASH is underway at the SLU Liver Center and many medications are being evaluated in clinical trials with results expected in the next 2-5 years.
By 2020, NASH will overtake hepatitis C as the number one cause of liver transplantation in the U.S. (Mayo Clinic)
* The Friends have raised and donated more than $5 million for the SLULC since
its inception. The funds help support the critical infrastructure of the Liver
Center from faculty salaries to visiting professorships and patient-oriented
seminars and research. A total of 44 Liver Center grants have been awarded to its members since 2005 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 NIH grant applications and publish their results. The 44 grants that were awarded total $1,383,929 and additionally $140,506 of research equipment and laboratory research supplies was purchased. These seed grant funds generated NIH, VA and foundation awards totaling over $22 million, which represents more than a 16 fold, return on investment. More than 1000 original papers, chapters, reviews and editorials were published by Liver Center members in the past 14 years.
* All money raised by the Friends of the Saint Louis University Liver Center stays
in the St. Louis area to support programs in education and research of liver
diseases