Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

    Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is an 800 bed, university-affiliated, tertiary care community hospital. Our gastroenterology faculty is composed of clinical and basic researchers representing major areas of gastroenterology and hepatology. Cedars-Sinai offers a wide variety of research opportunities in basic, clinical and translational gastroenterology

    Each fellow has one principal mentor that guides his/her research career during the three years and beyond. During the first clinical year, fellow will spend 3 months at Cedars-Sinai on the general gastroenterology service and the remaining 9 months rotating at other UCLA-affiliated hospitals.

    In addition to the general GI consultations, fellows will also be part of the Metabolic Support Team, which is responsible for the administration of specialized nutrition for hospitalized patients. The second and third years are carefully crafted to optimize fellow's research experience. Second and third year focus clinical rotations include inflammatory bowel diseases, GI motility, nutrition, hepatology, and health services research.  The educational experience of the general GI fellow is further enhanced by the availability of specialized fellows in IBD and hepatology at Cedars-Sinai.

Programs

Inflammatory Bowel Disease Program

    The IBD center at Cedars-Sinai is recognized as an international center of excellence in clinical and basic research in IBD. A large patient population and support staff facilitate many investigator-initiated and pharmaceutical company studies that are at the cutting edge of IBD therapeutics. Dr. Targan has an NIH program and ROL grants that examine unique aspects of intestinal lymphocyte signaling, genetics, and serologic markers in IBD.

The GI Motility and Nutrition Program

    The GI Motility and nutrition programs are a model of translational gastroenterology research. Basic and clinical research projects explore the specific pathogenic mechanisms underlying common disorders in GI motility across the length of the GI Tract. Translational research projects investigate novel therapeutic approaches in the management of these disorders.

The Cedars-Sinai Hepatology Program

    The Cedars-Sinai hepatology program has a busy clinical inpatient and outpatient service with an active liver transplant program. Faculty clinical research includes cytokine-directed therapy for alcoholic hepatitis, novel anti-viral therapies and autoimmune hepatitis.

Scientific Research

    Chronic idiopathic intestinal inflammation is characterized by aberrant bacterial reactivity and immune dysregulation resulting in damage to the intestinal lining. To that end, our laboratory is exploring the role of bacterial products in intestinal inflammation. Several lines of evidence suggest that inflammatory bowel disease is initiated and perpetuated by the presence of normal intestinal flora. We wish to understand the paradox that the intestinal epithelium is usually not inflamed despite the presence of bacteria in the gut. Our characterization of the phenotype of intestinal epithelial cells with respect to bacterial product recognition has resulted in several recent publications in the Journal of Immunology and Journal of Biological Chemistry. We are currently examining the role of toll-like receptor signaling in animal models of colitis. Our laboratory is funded by an NIH RO1 entitled “Regulation of Toll-like Receptor Complex in Intestinal Epithelial Cells.” This grant examines the regulation of a protein, MD-2, that is required for recognition of lipopolysacccharide by the innate immune system.

Clinical Research and Clinical Excellence

    At Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, we have one of the largest inflammatory bowel disease centers in the world and offer tertiary level care to patients with these diseases. In addition to the intestinal manifestations of inflammatory bowel disease, patients often have extra-intestinal complications of these diseases. In particular, patients with inflammatory bowel disease develop osteoporosis as a result of intestinal inflammation and treatment with corticosteroids. Our research has demonstrated that patients with Crohn’s disease have inappropriately high levels of 1,25OH-vitamin D which is inversely correlated with osteoporosis.