The Cleveland Digestive Diseases Research Core Center has two thematic areas of scientific focus:
Digestive Inflammation
Our Center supports a research base of over 20 investigators with active research programs in digestive inflammation and tumorigenesis of the esophagus and colon. General areas of investigation include:
- Innate immune mechanisms of experimental inflammatory bowel disease
- Genetic determinants of familial Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal cancer
- Cytokine-driven inflammation and colon cancer tumorigenesis
- Role of the gut microbiome in intestinal inflammation, Crohn’s disease, and multiple inflammatory diseases beyond the gastrointestinal system
- Development of novel targeted immunotherapies and biomarkers for colon cancer
- The effects of HIV and drug use on gut integrity and oral inflammation
Liver Disease/Metabolism
Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic are home to top programs in liver disease and metabolism. Our Center's research base includes a highly collaborative group of over 15 investigators actively working within these areas on projects related to:
- Hyperammonemia and sarcopenia in cirrhosis
- Role of adipose in alcohol-induced liver injury
- Development of novel anti-obesity therapies
- Inflammatory mediators as novel targeted therapies for adult liver disease
- Probiotics and alcoholic liver disease
- 3D liver imaging technologies
- Skeletal muscle lipid metabolism
- Mechanisms of malnutrition in cirrhosis
- Gut integrity after HIV therapy with metabolic complications
- Mechanisms of metabolic reprogramming by oncogenic mutations