University of Toronto - Mount Sinai Hospital

• Aim 1) To support the IBD Genetics Consortium (IBDGC) to continue the discovery of genetic variation associated with IBD and its meaningful phenotypes. In particular, the IBDGC proposes to fully characterize: (a) the genetic architecture of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in patients of non-European ancestry (EA) as well as important phenotypes with significant etiological and clinical unmet needs, namely; (b) acute severe ulcerative colitis (ASUC) and; (c) perianal Crohn’s disease (pCD).

• Aim 2) To identify the cellular, genomic and microbial characteristics underlying persistent microscopic colonic inflammation in ulcerative colitis (UC) and the mechanisms leading to disease relapse and colitis-associated neoplasia.

• Aim 3) Intestinal Cell State and Immune Profiling to Characterize Advanced Therapy (AT) responsive and Refractory Crohn’s disease (CD).

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.