Prof. Dr. Michael Merchant is a Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology & Toxicology in the Departments of Medicine and Pharmacology & Toxicology, as well as the Co-Director for the University of Louisville Core and Clinical Proteomics Laboratories. He completed his PhD studies in Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Arkansas. He was an Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Physics at Texas Woman’s University (1994–2002), where he taught freshman chemistry, as well as undergraduate and graduate biochemistry. He joined the UofL Core Proteomics Laboratory in 2003 after working to help establish the proteomics effort at the Eastern Virginia Medical School, Strelitz Diabetes Institute, in Norfolk, VA. His research focuses on the application of mass spectrometry-based proteomic methods to study human health and disease. His personal research focuses on the identification and confirmation of the biomarkers associated with renal disease or the complications associated with renal disease, such as anemia and cardiovascular disease.
Prof. Dr. Craig J McClain is a widely recognized expert in alcohol abuse, nutrition, and cytokine research, as well as hepatic drug metabolism. He described the deleterious interactions in the liver between alcohol and acetaminophen, and he was the first to describe dysregulated cytokines in alcohol-associated hepatitis. His laboratory currently focuses on nutrition and the gut–liver axis, especially as it relates to alcoholic liver disease. He has had continuous federal funding for his alcohol research since 1977. He has received multiple awards, such as the American Gastroenterology Association Foundation Research Mentoring Award, the Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award for Mentoring, and the Grace A. Goldsmith Award in Nutrition, including teaching awards, such as for Outstanding Gastroenterology Education at UofL. He is also the past President of the American College of Nutrition. He has served on several NIH and VA Study Sections. He was the first physician member of the NIH Peer Review Advisory Committee (PRAC) and served on the NIAAA National External Advisory Council and the NIH Council of Councils. He has published nearly 540 peer-reviewed articles and well over 100 book chapters/reviews, and he has mentored over 130 medical students, residents, GI fellows, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows, including more than 35 junior faculty members with K-type career development awards. Currently, he is a mentor on two NIH K awards.
Dr. Ming Song is an Assistant Professor at the School of Medicine, University of Louisville. He received his Master’s degree and completed his PhD studies at the Capital University of Medical Sciences. His research interests include dietary fructose and MASH/HCC progression, the copper–fructose interaction in the development of MASLD, alcoholic fatty liver disease, and the gut–liver axis in the progression of MASLD. He has been a member of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) since 2007. His research has been supported by NIH grants from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS).
