A major area of interest to the Liver Center is metabolic syndrome. Metabolic
syndrome is a combination of medical disorders that increase the risk
of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome
in the United States is calculated as encompassing up to 25 percent of
the population. A compromise in liver metabolism plays a crucial role
in the development of metabolic syndrome. Other areas of focus are
to define the mechanism for progression of fatty liver to liver cancer;
examine the genetic and epigenetic factors that contribute to liver cancer
and metabolic diseases; investigate individual differences in liver (drug)
metabolism (pharmacogenomics); study the mechanism of alcoholic liver
disease and factors for alcohol abuse, and discover new drugs and diagnostic
methods to prevent and treat liver cancer and metabolic diseases. The
Liver Center also includes research on gastrointestinal disorders and
treatment.
Our researchers fall into several categories of liver and GI investigations:
When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it is tied to everything else in the universe.
John Muir (1838-1914)
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The University of Kansas Medical Center