The SDDRC has awarded a new round of pilot & feasibility grants to promote innovative research in digestive diseases. This year's awardees are:
Cynthia Hsu, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, UC San Diego
About the Awardee: Cynthia Hsu is a gastroenterologist and physician scientist at UCSD, where her laboratory explores the complex relationships between the gut microbiome, liver, and brain in the context of alcohol use disorder and liver disease. She completed her MD/PhD at UCSD and the Salk Institute, where she studied mTOR signaling and autophagy induction as a therapy for neurodegenerative diseases under the mentorship of Dr. Al La Spada and Dr. Tony Hunter, before shifting her research focus to the gut microbiome and liver disease under the mentorship of Dr. Bernd Schnabl. Her lab integrates computational methods, microbiology techniques, and gnotobiotic mouse models to understand how gut microbiota protect or predispose people to alcohol use and liver disease.
Project Title: Beyond Additive Effects: Uncovering the Gut Microbiome's Role in the Synergistic Induction of Liver Injury by Metabolic Dysfunction and Alcohol
Summary: Liver disease is a leading cause of death worldwide, claiming two million lives annually. Heavy alcohol consumption and metabolic diseases, such as obesity and diabetes, are major risk factors. When these factors combine, the risk of liver disease multiplies. We aim to investigate how the microbes in our gut are affected by alcohol and metabolic disease, both separately and together. Our goal is to understand how these microbes may contribute to liver disease, beyond the direct damage caused by alcohol and metabolic disease. By exploring this connection, we hope to discover new ways to prevent and treat liver disease.
D. Brent Polk, MD
Martin Brotman Professor and Chief, Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition, Department of Pediatrics, UC San Diego
About the Awardee: Dr. D. Brent Polk is a distinguished pediatric gastroenterologist, physician-scientist, and educator with over 30 years of experience in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) research and patient care. His research is focused on the regulation of growth and development as it relates to health and disease, with a long-standing interest in tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) family members, defining many of their signal respective transduction pathways. This Pilot & Feasibility project is to address findings from our research that while anti-TNF treatment is effective for IBD, one of the TNF receptors (tnfrsf1b - TNFR2) is protective from colitis and necessary for repair. The proposed studies will advance our understanding of IBD pathophysiology and provide preclinical validation for TNFR2-based therapeutic strategies.
Project Title: Cytokine Regulation of Intestinal Epithelial Restitution
Summary: A comprehensive understanding of colon epithelial tumor necrosis factor receptor 2 (TNFR2) during ulceration and colitis could provide critical insights into why many patients treated with anti-TNF therapies fail to achieve or maintain a therapeutic response. While anti-TNF treatments are widely used, they are not effective for all patients, particularly those with low TNFR2 expression. By investigating TNFR2’s role in epithelial repair and differentiation, we may identify key molecular mechanisms underlying treatment resistance. This research could ultimately help pinpoint a subset of patients who may benefit from targeted TNFR2 therapies, offering a more personalized approach to IBD treatment.
Monica Tincopa, MD MSc
Assistant Professor, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, UC San Diego
About the Awardee: Dr. Tincopa received her medical degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where she also completed internal medicine residency. She completed gastroenterology and transplant hepatology fellowship at the University of Michigan where she also obtained a Master's in Health and Healthcare research. Dr. Tincopa's research interests include metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), cirrhosis, liver transplantation, obesity and metabolic syndrome and health disparities in liver disease.
Project Title: Reducing Health Disparities for Hispanic Adults with MASLD Through Tailored Non-Invasive Screening and Risk Stratification
Summary: A specific type of fatty liver disease [metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD)] affects Hispanic/Latino people in the US more than others, causing serious liver problems like cirrhosis liver cancer, and the need for transplants. Around 30-50% of Hispanic adults have MASLD, making it a big health problem. In this project, our goal is to study how well current medical care pathways for screening and management of MASLD work for Hispanic individuals and to find ways to improve how well these approaches provide care for Hispanic patients. This knowledge can help make better treatments and prevent health issues in the future.
The Isenberg Endowed Fellowship was jointly awarded by the Pilot & Feasibility Program of the San Diego Digestive Diseases Research Center and the Hellman Family Foundation. The fellowship, given in honor of the late Dr. Jon Isenberg 1979-1993 to promote Dr. Isenberg's lifelong research interests including intestinal epithelial ion transport mechanisms, mucosal defense, peptic ulcer disease, and cystic fibrosis, as applied to the intestine, liver, and biliary system.
Andrés Gottfried, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine and Department of Pharmacology, UC San Diego
About the Awardee: As a physician-scientist, Dr. Gottfried's long-term goal is to lead a research program that bridges the clinic and laboratory to advance therapies for patients with gut motility and inflammatory disorders. To achieve this, his research focuses on neuro-immune crosstalk—specifically how inflammation causes enteric dysfunction and how the activity of the enteric nervous system can modulate inflammatory processes. In this award, he will study the crosstalk between a gut neuroendocrine hormone and gastric inflammation. Through this work, he will continue to train in various techniques, including immune cell phenotyping, human stomach biopsy processing for flow cytometry, cytokine analysis, histology and immunofluorescence, and modeling human disease in mice.
Project Title: Studying the immunomodulatory effects of GLP-1 in gastritis
Summary: Stomach inflammation causes health problems, including bleeding and stomach cancer. These complications occur more frequently in people with obesity. GLP-1 agonists are being used to treat obesity; however, it is unclear if these drugs also modulate health problems caused by stomach inflammation. This project will study whether a GLP-1 drug blocks stomach inflammation and prevents its complications. To do this, we will use a mouse model, and upper endoscopy patient stomach biopsies. Given the rapid escalation of GLP-1 therapy to treat obesity and diabetes, understanding all the beneficial (or detrimental) effects of these drugs is imperative.
