In stalking the ‘silent killer,’ he transforms health in the liver and beyond

By VCU News staff

Arun Sanyal, M.D., would like nothing better than to put himself out of a job. That’s because he has dedicated his career to wiping out liver disease, known as the “silent killer” because the liver won’t tell you when things start to go wrong. It is among the world’s top 10 causes of death.

Sanyal’s passion for hepatology developed early in his career when he was training at Virginia Commonwealth University and saw how few treatment options there were – and how little hope – for patients with liver disease. He wanted to change that, to develop treatments as well as to find ways to prevent liver disease from developing in the first place.

Sanyal, a transplant hepatologist, views the liver as more than just an organ – it’s the unsung hero to unlocking better health outcomes for millions.

“The liver is the driver of human health and well-being,” he says. “When the liver shuts down, every other organ in the body is affected. By focusing on the liver, we can transform human health.” 

In 2022, the VCU Stravitz-Sanyal Institute for Liver Disease and Metabolic Health was founded through the largest publicly shared gift for liver research in U.S. history, with Sanyal as the institute’s director. Since then, he and his team of researchers and clinicians have developed breakthrough drug therapies and created global partnerships that bring cutting-edge research to the world.

The video below shares the story of an uncommon hero who is revolutionizing how liver disease is treated, prevented and understood in terms of its importance to other major health conditions like diabetes and heart disease.

“There’s no point in solving a problem only to put the solution on a shelf,” Sanyal says. “We have to get it into the hands of people treating patients all over the world.”