Colleagues, it is my great pleasure to announce the appointment of Dr. Matthew A. Ciorba as the William B. Kountz Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology at WashU Medicine.
The Kountz Chair was previously held by Dr. Gus Schoenfeld, Dr. David Alpers and most recently Dr. Deborah Rubin, all exceptional physician scientists. Dr. Ciorba will continue this tradition of excellence in his capacity as a highly accomplished physician scientist and Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Center.
Dr. Ciorba completed medical school at the University of Iowa and residency and GI fellowship training at WashU/BJH. He had additional training in IBD at Mount Sinai Hospital in NY. Dr. Ciorba established his own research program in mucosal inflammation and inflammatory mediators of colorectal cancer and was promoted to Professor of Medicine at WashU in 2022.
A major theme of Dr. Ciorba’s research program is developing “gut-directed” therapies to address the unmet needs of patients with IBD and other intestinal diseases. His basic-translational research program focuses largely on host-microbial interactions and nutritional factors that shape the epithelial response to inflammation, injury, and repair. As Director of IBD Research here he has fostered collaborative research programs dedicated to defining pathways and mechanisms of intestinal inflammation and the transition to colon cancer. His research spawned four Bench-to-Bedside clinical trials addressing unmet patient needs in colitis, enteritis and rectal cancer using probiotics, novel immunotherapies and manipulating bile acids. He also established new methodologies and resources to facilitate human translational research including robust models to support in vitro growth of human intestinal epithelial cells as spheroids, 2D monolayers and tumoroids. He serves as Director of the Organoids and Gene Editing Core of the WashU Medicine Digestive Disease Research Center.
Dr. Ciorba’s research interests also include novel treatments and prevention of gastrointestinal cancers. He is PI on an NCI funded, multi-center trial evaluating a novel immunotherapy for patients with locally advanced rectal cancer. He recently partnered with colleagues to establish PREVENT— a multidisciplinary program at Siteman Cancer Center, focused on prevention and early detection of stomach and pancreatic cancers supported by the BJH Foundation.
Dr. Ciorba is founding Director of the WashU Medicine IBD Center: and directs the IBD Center of Excellence, one of the nation’s largest multidisciplinary programs, providing comprehensive, patient-centered care to more than 10,000 individuals affected by Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis. He built a team from two IBD physicians in 2017 to now include 15 physicians, three APPs, dietitians, a psychologist, and 23 staff. Dr. Ciorba also initiated the Lawrence C. Pakula, MD advanced fellowship in IBD and served as program director from its inception in 2018 through 2025.
Dr. Ciorba’s expertise and accomplishments have been recognized through numerous visiting professorships and invited lectures across the world, and scientific grant and manuscript review committees. These include federal (NIH/NIDDK) appointments as a standing study section member, appointments to the American Gastroenterology Association (AGA) Research Awards Panel, and Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation (CCF) National Scientific Advisory Committee Cabinet. In addition, he serves on ad-hoc grant review and advisory committees for France, Australia, Belgium, NASA, Sweden, Wellcome Trust, etc., as well as on the editorial board of leading international journals including Gastroenterology, Gut, JCI Insight, and on the organizing committees of Crohn’s and Colitis Congress and Digestive Diseases Week. He is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, a fellow of the AGA, and a Castle Connolly Top Doctor.
Dr. Ciorba is an exceptional research mentor for medical students, residents and fellows, and faculty. His mentees include trainees in GI and widely within the Department and School of Medicine. He is committed to training the next generation of medical investigators who will advance discovery and treatment of digestive diseases. Dr. Ciorba serves as Director of the GI Fellowship’s NIDDK T32 Research Training grant and has personally mentored more than 30 trainees.
Dr. Ciorba is an accomplished and highly visible physician-scientist whose leadership of the IBD program has brought national and international acclaim to WashU. Dr. Ciorba is a charismatic leader and a devoted advocate for physician scientists. His scientific and clinical impact is recognized nationally. Based on the totality of his academic, scientific, and administrative contributions we are delighted to announce that he has been appointed as the William B. Kountz Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology at WashU Medicine.
Please join me in congratulating Dr. Ciorba on this well-deserved honor.