About Florida Research Institute

Bringing advanced therapies to those in need.

Florida Research Institute (FRI) strives to bring advanced therapies to those in need while providing excellent patient care. Located in Lakewood Ranch, FL, FRI is a global leader in gastroenterology and hepatology research with a highly skilled team of more than 20 clinical research professionals.

FRI was founded in 2015 by Florida Digestive Health Specialists, one of the largest single-specialty gastroenterology networks in the state. This connection gives us a built-in database of thousands of potential local subjects and has allowed us to conduct a multitude of trials in various therapeutic areas.

We have developed a strong reputation for quality research, and we pride ourselves on our industry track record of providing sponsors and CROs:

Quality data
Timely responses
High retention rates
Low screen failure rate

FRI’s state-of-the-art research program will advance medicine for years to come.

Principal Investigator, Dr. Souvik Sarkar

We’re excited to introduce Dr. Souvik Sarkar, MD, PhD. as our Principal Investigator and Medical Director of Research. Dr. Sarkar is a board-certified gastroenterologist and hepatologist with an interest in new therapeutics and clinical trials for patients with Non-Alcoholic Fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH).

Dr. Sarkar joins us from the University of California Davis where he developed and led a robust non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) clinical and research program. While there, he advanced a collaborative effort of clinicians, biomedical engineers, radiologist and pathologist to develop non-invasive and total-body imaging modalities applicable to NAFLD. He also served on the American Liver Foundation Northern California chapter’s medical advisory board and the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) membership and mentorship sub-committee.

Gastroenterology Fellowship: Yale University
Hepatology Fellowship: Liver Diseases Branch, National Institutes of Health
Internal Medicine Residency: Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center
Cell & Structural Biology PhD: Albert Einstein College of Medicine

“I focus my work to optimize care using the latest available tools to achieve the best possible clinical outcome for patients affected with chronic liver diseases.”

Dr. Souvik Sarkar.