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Research excellence at the
University of Illinois at Chicago
Conducting world-class research is fundamental to UIC, with research and development expenditures totaling nearly $260 million annually.
The Section of Digestive Diseases & Nutrition is located in the Illinois Medical District - the world's largest concentration of advanced health care facilities - and the Section personally brings in over $2 million in Federal funding support (direct costs) each year.
All postdocs attend an ongoing weekly Research Conference that brings internationally recognized investigators to UIC, with whom postdocs are encourged to meet. The environment is extremely collegial and supportive of both PhD's and MD's pursuing careers in gastroenterology research. Divisional researchers maintain close working relationships with other faculty members in the UIC Departments of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry, Physiology and Biophysics, Pharmacology and Microbiology.
 Research Focus |
| The broad focus of our research is gastrointestinal epithelial pathobiology. Included under this umbrella are molecular mechanisms and chemoprevention of colorectal and liver cancer, host-pathogen interactions/inflammation in the intestine, and intestinal transport in health and disease. These particular areas of focus are of monumental importance to the field of gastrointestinal health and disease. The primary symptom of enteric infection is diarrhea, it is crucial to understand the mechanisms underlying normal physiology of intestinal transport as well as pathogen-induced alterations in this process. The research of each of our participating faculty falls under one or more of the categories listed below. |
Spotlight on
Jae Kim , MD
2nd Year GI
Fellow
My clinical research at UIC entails using aberrant crypt foci (ACF) as a surrogate biomarker for assessing colorectal cancer (CRC) risk. Current literature supports that diet and lifestyle as well as other things do have an impact on decreasing your risk. If ACF is the earliest biomarker for colorectal cancer than future chemo-preventive studies can use this information to better ascertain preventive measures. We are using known risk factors and assessing how ACF enumeration might influence the overall colorectal cancer risk. Here at UIC, we are building an ACF database to assess the overall risk of tubular adenomas, which are known be the earliest precursor to colon cancer progression, and its association with ACF enumeration. Using routine CRC screening patients, we are able to use a non-selected patient population, which would be the most representative of the general population. We use magnification endoscopy to magnify the lining of the colon up to 80 times to easily visualize and identify the ACF. Also, each patient seen in clinic are given an NIH Diet History Questionnaire, which will be used to assess specific dietary recommendations to decrease the patients risk of colorectal cancer as recommended by National Institute of Health.
| Additional
Researchers (hepatology): |
| Andrei L. Gartel, Ph.D.: Dr. Gartel analyzes the function and mechanisms of
p53-independent regulation of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor
p21(WAF1/CIP1). Postdoctoral opportunities are available in the laboratories of the investigators listed below, for such opportunities, please contact the individual laboratories directly. |
© 2007 University of Illinois at Chicago
Section of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition
University of
Illinois at Chicago
840 S. Wood Street (M/C 716)
Chicago, Illinois
60612
Telephone: 312-996-6651
Fax: 312-996-5103