Rutgers—Johns Hopkins

IBD Genetics Research Center

Steve R. Brant, MD

Principal Investigator

Professor of Medicine and Chancellor Scholar

Chief, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Adjunct Professor, Rutgers University Dept. of Genetics and Human Genetics Institute of New Jersey

Adjunct Professor, Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Dept. of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Data Manager and Director of Recruitment Coordinating Center

Lisa Datta MS (Gastroenterology and Hepatology, JHUSOM)

Satellite Recruitment Center Investigators

Jason Hou MD, Baylor College of Medicine
Gerald Dryden MD,PhD Univ of Louisville
Edward Barnes, MD, MPH, Univ of North Carolina
Howard Kader MD, Univ of Maryland
John Kuemmerle MD, Virginia Commonwealth Univ
Joel Pekow, Univ of Chicago
Nikolas Pyropoulos MD, Rutgers NJMS
Kirk Russ MD, Univ of Alabama
Ellen Scherl MD, Weill Cornell
Duane Smoot MD, Meharry Medical College

NIDDK IBDGC-related Goals

Specific Aims

Aim 1: Expand the African American (AA) IBD study population for gene mapping

Aim 2: Further identify disease variants for AA IBD by various methods including WGS for low frequency alleles, sex-specific analyses, admixture mapping, sex-based analyses, and novel association discovery by incorporating gene expression data and pathway analyses

Aim 3: examine gene expression in colonic epithelium from African Americans to identify differentially expressed genes and eQTLs relevant to ulcerative colitis in African Americ

Aim 4: determine if differences in open chromatin explains genetic loci with differential IBD genetic association by ethnic ancestry between whites, East Asians and AA’s.

Administrative Supplement

Evaluate pre-diagnostic sera for metabolites that are signatures of microbes that interact with Crohns disease (CD) innate immunity risk genes leading to development of CD

Major interests

Identification and characterization of inflammatory bowel disease risk genes in diverse populations, particularly in African Americans
Determine the causes of differential IBD genetic association by ancestry
Identify root causes of inflammatory bowel disease by exploration of gene-environmental and gene-gene interactions

Co-investigators

Mark Lazarev, MD (Co-Chair, IBDGC Clinical Research Committee and Clinical Lead Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine [JHUSOM])
Andrew McCallion PhD (Genomics, JHUSOM)
Claire Simpson PhD (Statistical Genetics Lead, Univ. of Tennessee Health Sci. Center)
Michal Verzi PhD, (Epithelial Genetics, Rutgers)
Steve Buyske PhD (Statistical Genetics, Rutgers)
Manisha Bajpai PhD (Research Manager, RWJMS)
Nick Zachos, PhD, (Enteroids, JHUSOM)
Darren Seril MD, PhD (Clinical Lead, RWJMS)