R. Balfour Sartor, MD

EMAIL: rbs@med.unc.edu

PERSONAL WEBSITE: https://www.med.unc.edu/cgibd/sartor-ryan/

PUBLICATIONS: Publications Link

I am a physician scientist, board-certified gastroenterologist with expertise in managing difficult-to-treat patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and a mucosal immunologist/microbiologist with a long-term interest in understanding mechanisms by which resident microbiota induce chronic intestinal inflammation vs. mucosal homeostasis. My research develops and studies rodent models of chronic, immune-mediated intestinal inflammation relevant to IBD and performs clinically relevant translational studies involving IBD patients. I investigate genetically-determined immune responses to luminal resident microbial components using gnotobiotic mice and patient-derived samples, and study the influence of environmental factors on intestinal microbiota composition and function. I have published over 400 articles, editorials, and chapters, edited 5 books, and have been continuously funded by the NIH (NIDDK) since 1983. In 2020, I received the AGA’s Basic Science Achievement Award, recognizing my career-long contributions to understanding the role of the gut microbiota in intestinal inflammation and homeostasis. I have been a member of 3, and chair of 2, standing NIH Study Sections, including NIDDK-C; Chairman of the Training Awards and Grants Review Committees, Chair National Scientific Advisory Committee and Chief Medical Advisor for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation; Co-Director of the Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease (CGIBD) at UNC, Chair of the Immunology, Microbiology and IBD Section of the AGA; Director of the Multidisciplinary IBD Center at UNC, and Director of the NIH-funded National Gnotobiotic Rodent Resource Center at UNC. I have trained over 60 postdoctoral fellows and graduate students. In the past 5 years, I have supported the career development of 7 junior faculty members as primary mentor of K01, K08 or Foundation Career Development Awards. Of the 5 junior faculty who have completed their Career Development Awards, 3 have obtained NIDDK R01 grants and 1 a Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation Career Development Award. My interest and success in guiding the careers of young scientists was recognized by the AGA Microbiome Section’s Mentoring Award in 2019. In addition, I have led multiple large multidisciplinary consortium studies that have extensively impacted the IBD field. This includes being the PI of a recently renewed NIDDK-funded Program Project (P01 DK094779), of one of the world’s largest gnotobiotic animal facilities (P40OD010995), 30-year basic science T32 training grant (T32 DK00737), a previously funded P20 multidisciplinary grant using noninvasive novel imaging techniques to detect inflammation, co-Director of the NIDDK-funded P30 CGIBD, where I direct the UNC Gnotobiotic Core and Associate Director of a Cystic Fibrosis Core Center (P30DK06559 88). I have extensive experience managing large interactive research programs, serving as founding Director of the UNC Multidisciplinary IBD Center and previously the CCFA Chief Medical Advisor, and developed and directed the innovative Litwin Pioneers Research Program. I am involved in IBD translational research as joint PI of a Helmsley Trust-sponsored research project to find microbial and genomic predictors of recurrence of post-operative Crohn’s disease, and joint PI with Dr. Shehzad Sheikh of a prospective study to identify bacterial predictors of post-operative Crohn’s disease relapse.