He is an internationally recognized thought leader in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and non-invasive assessment of liver disease using advanced imaging modalities.

Dr. Loomba is the founding director of the UCSD NAFLD Research Center which is one of the most well-funded clinical and translational research programs at UCSD. The NAFLD Research Center fosters collaborative team science where a multi-disciplinary team of researchers are conducting cutting edge research in all aspects of NAFLD including non-invasive biomarkers, genetics, epidemiology, clinical trial design, imaging end-points, and integrated OMICs using microbiome, metabolome and lipidome. This integrated approach has led to several innovative applications such as establishment of MRI-PDFF as a non-invasive biomarker of treatment response in early phase trials in NASH, which has now been adopted in more than a hundred clinical trials conducted worldwide. He holds several patents on non-invasive biomarkers of NASH and fibrosis.

His research is funded by the National Institutes of Health as a Principal Investigator including two R01s, three U01 (two NIDDK and one from NIAAA), clinical core director of P30 (NIDDK) and project director P01 (NHLBI) grant mechanisms, Foundation of NIH, as well as several large multicenter, multi-million dollar investigator initiated research projects funded by the industry. He is the Principal Investigator, UCSD, for the NIDDK-sponsored NASH Clinical Research Network and the Liver Cirrhosis Network.

Dr. Loomba is passionate regarding clinical research mentoring and future leaders in liver disease. The UCSD NAFLD Research Center has become a global hub for training in clinical research methodology in liver diseases for junior investigators who visit from all over the world. He serves/or has served on the mentoring team of more than 10 K-awardees, several of his mentees are now leading their respective centers and are key opinion leaders in the field. He has mentored eighteen undergraduate students who are now attending medical school. US World News has ranked UCSD Gastroenterology and Hepatology number 1 globally in Research and Education.