NDDIC News
Dr. Hoofnagle Receives Awards
Jay Hoofnagle, M.D., director of the Division of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), recently received the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) Distinguished Achievement Award, which honors individual researchers for sustained scientific contributions to the field of liver disease. Earlier in 2002, Dr. Hoofnagle also received the Gold Medal from the Canadian Association for the Study of the Liver for contributions to liver disease research.
"He's been a pivotal figure in three areas," says NIDDK's Dr. Leonard Seeff, who presented the AASLD award. "He's trained outstanding physicians in the field, he's a leading figure in treating viral hepatitis, and he's been an important figure in supporting research on liver and gastroenterological diseases."
Dr. Hoofnagle's findings have provided the scientific underpinnings of what have become standard treatments for many people with hepatitis C. In the 1980s, he and his colleagues at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) began evaluating alpha interferon's antiviral potential in hepatitis B and hepatitis C, then known as non-A, non-B hepatitis. At the time, few people believed that viral hepatitis could be treated. The pharmaceutical industry became interested when Dr. Hoofnagle showed that long-term therapy with interferon could control chronic hepatitis C in some patients.
He continues to run clinical trials and to organize national and international educational opportunities for those who treat hepatitis. In 1997, he organized the NIH Consensus Development Conference on the Management of Hepatitis C. In 1999, he co-organized an international symposium on hepatitis C and related viruses, as well as NIH workshops on alternative and complementary medicine in chronic liver disease and on hepatitis C in African Americans. He has written more than 300 research articles and has authored or coauthored more than 50 book chapters.
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NIH Publication No. 03–4552
March 2003
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