08/04/2026
Chaowapong (Chao) Jarasvaraparn, MD, pediatric gastroenterologist at Riley Children’s Health, has received a highly competitive American Heart Association (AHA) Career Development Award to advance research focused on Fontan-associated liver disease (FALD), a serious long-term complication affecting children and adults born with single-ventricle heart defects.
The AHA Career Development Award, among the organization's most prestigious grants for early-career investigators, supports physician-scientists with funding, mentorship, and protected research time as they establish innovative research programs that advance cardiovascular health and related fields. For Jarasvaraparn, the award will accelerate efforts to better understand, identify and predict liver disease progression in patients who have undergone the Fontan procedure.
Advances in congenital heart disease treatment have helped more children survive and thrive into adulthood, but many Fontan patients develop some degree of liver damage over time. Currently, clinicians have limited tools to predict which patients are most likely to experience progressive disease or severe complications. Jarasvaraparn’s research seeks to change that by combining advanced molecular technologies, including spatial transcriptomics and artificial intelligence, with clinical data to better understand the earliest biological changes occurring within the liver. His goal is to develop more precise approaches for early detection, risk stratification and long-term monitoring.
Riley Children’s and IU School of Medicine provide access to a large population of patients with Fontan circulation, enabling researchers to study long-term outcomes and advance clinically meaningful discoveries. The research builds on Riley Children’s strengths in multidisciplinary care and physician-scientist collaboration, with partnerships across pediatric hepatology, cardiology, genomics, bioinformatics and translational science. Internal collaborators include R. Mark Payne, MD, a leader in cardiovascular research; Jiang Bian, PhD, an IU School of Medicine partner also affiliated with the Regenstrief Institute, who provides expertise in AI and data analytics; and Suthat Liangpunsakul, MD, a nationally recognized adult hepatologist and researcher.
In addition to his AHA-funded work, Jarasvaraparn and colleagues are leading a national multicenter collaborative focused on pediatric Fontan-associated liver disease, bringing together 35 participating centers across the United States. The initiative reflects Riley Children’s commitment to advancing research that informs care for children with rare and complex conditions nationwide.
By integrating advanced molecular technologies with clinical hepatology expertise, Jarasvaraparn’s research aims to improve early detection, risk stratification and long-term management of Fontan-associated liver disease, with the goal of preventing serious liver complications. Learn more about Riley Children’s Health gastroenterology program, research, and clinical breakthroughs in the annual report.