Research Focus Areas
The long-term goal of the Digestive Health Center (DHC) is to improve child health through better diagnosis, treatments and outcomes for our three (3) key targeted focus areas, including:
- Mechanisms of Liver Disease
- Biliary atresia and genetic cholestatic syndromes
- Autoimmune liver disease (AILD) and Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC)
- Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD)
- Digestive Disease and Immunity
- Inflammatory bowel disease: mucosal immunology, epithelial function, microbial sensing
- Eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders
- Acute and chronic pancreatitis
- Stem Cell and Organoid Modeling of Digestive Diseases
- Molecular basis of organogenesis
- Organoids to model physiological domains: esophagus, stomach, intestine, colon, liver, bile duct, and pancreas, to include relevant immune, stromal, neuronal, and endothelial cells
- iPSC- and patient-derived organoids to model GI, liver, and pancreas diseases
