Saul Karpen

Saul J. Karpen, MD, PhD is Professor of Pediatrics, Raymond F. Schinazi Distinguished Biomedical Chair, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at Emory University School Medicine/ Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta since 2011. He received his undergraduate degree in Biomechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and his combined MD-PhD degrees from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He then went to Yale School of Medicine for Pediatrics Residency and Pediatric GI/Hepatology Fellowship, before joining Faculty from 1994-2000, where he focused his research focused upon on newly-emerging fields of nuclear receptor regulation of liver metabolism and cholestasis.

From 2000-2011, he was founder and Director of the Texas Children’s Liver Center, Professor of Pediatrics at the Baylor College of Medicine where he continued working on clinical and basic components of liver pathobiology and nuclear receptors as well as clinical care of liver transplant patients. Dr. Karpen has over 160 peer-reviewed publications on both clinical and basic research topics, filled leadership roles in several national societies & NIH Consortia, and organized several international conferences. Dr. Karpen has NIDDK support for R01, U01 and T32 Programs and has served on multiple NIH Review Panels. Among his main clinical and research contributions are: the discovery of phytosterols as the principal contributor to TPN-associated cholestasis and the therapeutic implementation of reduction of soy lipids in these neonates and integration of nuclear receptors and inflammation in the core functioning of hepatocytes and responses to dietary and inflammatory signals. He has also been involved in research into the causes, extra-hepatic consequences, and diagnostic paradigms for biliary atresia and other severe forms of cholestasis.

His overall goals are to develop integrative programs to improve children’s lives through research, discovery of rational therapeutic targets, and the development of safe and effective pharmaceuticals—all focused upon the unique and pressing needs of infants and children with liver diseases. His research and clinical foci on biliary atresia includes recent discoveries on the genetic causes of this important liver disease of infancy, and identification of care plans and novel therapeutics.