Alcoholic hepatitis is frequently a severe clinical condition associated with high short-term mortality. Research in this field has been hampered by both the absence of an appropriate animal model and the lack of readily available human liver samples to conduct translational investigations in patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis.

In 2012 following the French report researchers at Johns Hopkins began a program for transplantation of patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis at Johns Hopkins with promising clinical outcomes. The program for transplantation of patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis also allowed for the collection of liver samples and data relevant to the study of severe alcoholic hepatitis with committed investigators to promote discovery in this field.

With R24 grant support from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), our team established a centralized database of de-identified samples in order to promote access to otherwise unavailable specimens, collaboration, efficiency, and progress towards a cure. In collaboration with experts from the High Throughput Biology Center at Johns Hopkins, we also utilize this resource to perform transcriptome and proteome analysis and provide these data to committed investigators for translational research. In last three years, we have provided severalhundredshuman samples to 37 principal investigators from 26  institutions/universities. 

Samples may be provided to principal investigators following a thorough vetting by the research team. 

Publicly available datasets generated under this grant:

RNAseq analysis highlights significant transcriptional changes within the livers of patients with alcoholic hepatitis.