Personal Statement

Currently, I am professor of medicine, director of translational medicine, co-director of the Mucosal Immunology Repository for Inflammatory and Digestive Diseases biobank, director of Precision Health for Cedars-Sinai and the Joshua L. and Lisa Z. Greer Chair in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Genetics at Cedars-Sinai. I joined Cedars-Sinai in 2007 after completing my clinical training and my doctorate at the University of Oxford, UK. My research interests have included identifying susceptibility variants for inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) in a variety of populations including very early onset IBD, African Americans and East Asian. I also study the role of the microbiome (including fungi and viruses) in IBD and the relationship between the microbiome and host genetics. I am a member of the steering committee for the International and North American IBD Genetics consortia, as well as the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation (CCF) Microbiome Initiative. In addition, I am the co-chair of the Los Angeles CCF's medical advisory committee and a member of the CCF's National Scientific Advisory committee. I am a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the International Organization for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. My goal is to bring recent advances in genomics and other "-omic" capabilities to benefit patients. My lab members also work on the development of biomarkers and the identification of potential new therapeutic opportunities that we look to validate in collaboration with the Drug Development Unit that I also co-direct.