The Anna S. Lok Fund for Excellence in Research and Training

Anna S. Lok, MD, FAASLD has established an endowment to support AASLD Foundation’s Advanced/Transplant Hepatology Award, which encourages exceptional hepatology trainees to choose academic careers in hepatology.

The Anna S. Lok Fund for Excellence in Research and Training represents the largest gift from an AASLD member in the Foundation’s history, and it makes Dr. Lok the first Champion Giving Circle Member for the Foundation’s Tomorrow’s Cures Campaign.

“The hepatology community has been kind to me – embracing and nurturing me in my early years, providing me with opportunity to grow and lead, and more recently, recognizing and rewarding me for years of hard work. Because of this, I want to give back, and the Tomorrow’s Cures Campaign provides the perfect opportunity to make an immediate and long-lasting impact,” explains Dr. Lok who is Co-Chair of the Leadership Gifts Division of the campaign.

By supporting the Tomorrow’s Cures Campaign, Dr. Lok is helping AASLD Foundation fund more meritorious liver disease research, address new research needs in hepatology, build a robust workforce of physicians and health care professionals trained to care for people with liver disease, and create opportunities to increase the public’s awareness of liver diseases.

Since the inception of the Advanced/Transplant Hepatology Award, five of Dr. Lok’s fellows have received the Award under her mentorship. This demonstrates Dr. Lok’s passion for mentorship and her commitment to the future of hepatology.

“We need bright, young physicians and researchers to get into the field, to stay in the field, and to work together to find ways by which we can diagnose liver diseases earlier and discover more treatments and cures,” explains Dr. Lok of her decision to set up the endowment. “I feel strongly about helping the next generation of hepatologists because I recognize how much my mentors and my early training shaped me and helped me get to where I am today.”

Dr. Lok is the Immediate Past President of AASLD and serves as the Alice Lohrman Andrews Research Professor in Hepatology at the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She is also Director of Clinical Hepatology and Assistant Dean for Clinical Research in the Medical School.

Dr. Lok’s research focuses on the natural history and treatment of hepatitis B and C and the prevention of liver cancer. She has trained more than 50 fellows and junior faculty from all over the world and has been recognized by her institution — and across the medical community — not only for her research, but also for her mentorship and commitment to the field.

To learn more about the work of the AASLD Foundation and the Tomorrow’s Cures Campaign, contact AASLD Foundation Director of Development, Julie Wolfe at jwolfe@aasld.org or 703-299-9766.