University of Toronto - Mount Sinai Hospital

 IBD Genetics Research Center

Mark Silverberg, MD, PhD, FRCPC

Principal Investigator

Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto

Gastroenterologist, Department of Medicine

Senior Investigator, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute Inflammatory Bowel Disease Group

Website 

Lead Clinicians & Contributors

Analysts & Scientific Associates

Research Team

NIDDK IBDGC-related Goals

Specific Aims

Major interests

My research interests for the past 20 years are to evaluate the role of genetic, microbial, and other biomarkers in the etiology, classification and clinical course of IBD. Since 2002 my lab has been funded continuously by the NIH/NIDDK. I have extensive experience with large scale collaborative research projects. I have been a member of the Steering Committee for the NIDDK IBD Genetics Consortium since its inception and am a previous member of the CCFA Microbiome Consortium. I am a Senior Advisor to the Canadian IBD Research Consortium (CIRC) and a Steering Committee Member of the Canadian National GEM Project. My position at Sinai Health System provides me access to more than 5000 IBD-affected subjects that come to our institution annually. Nearly all of our patients are followed longitudinally and we have research ethics permissions in place on an ongoing basis to re-contact subjects for whom we have DNA and other biospecimens/clinical data. My team is extremely experienced at collecting high quality biospecimens from human subjects for genetics and microbiome studies. My lab has accumulated samples and data on more than 9000 subjects since 2003. My publications and presentations have demonstrated successful experience in the genomics, serology, transcriptomics and microbiome fields. I also have significant experience and expertise in the clinical management of IBD. I am the Founder and Past Director of the Mount Sinai Hospital Advanced IBD Fellowship Program which was initiated to bring post-doctoral trainees to our institution for research fellowships. We have trained Fellows from the UK, USA, Ireland, Australia, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Israel, USA, Saudi Arabia and Canada and many of these fellows have made significant contributions to the activities of the IBDGC. It is my mission to unravel the etiology of IBD and to improve the lives of those affected by it.

Co-Investigators

Ken Croitoru MD FRCPC

Professor of Medicine, University of Toronto

Gastroenterologist, Mount Sinai Hospital/Sinai Health System

Dr. Jeff Wrana PhD

Professor, Department of Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto

Senior Investigator, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health System

Dr. Hartland Jackson PhD

Investigator, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health System

Associate Scientist, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research

Dr. David Guttman PhD

Professor, Department of Cell and Systems Biology, University of Toronto, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Director, University of Toronto Centre for the Analysis of Genome Evolution & Function (CAGEF)

James Conner, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor, University of Toronto  Pathologist, Mount Sinai Hospital/Sinai Health System