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Scientific Advisory Council
The Connecting to Cure Crohn’s and Colitis (CtoC) Scientific Advisory Council recommends and advises the Board of Directors on research projects that will advance and accelerate our mission to find cures and treatments for Crohn’s Disease and ulcerative colitis.
Marla C. Dubinsky, MD
Professor of Pediatrics
Chief, Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition
Co-Director, Susan and Leonard Feinstein Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinical Center
Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital New York, New York
Marla C. Dubinsky received a medical degree from Queen’s University in Canada and completed her clinical pediatric gastroenterology training at Sainte-Justine Hospital, University of Montreal in Quebec, Canada. Currently, Dr. Dubinsky is Chief of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Co-Director of the Susan and Leonard Feinstein Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinical Center, and Professor of Pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital Medical Center in New York.
Board-certified in pediatrics and pediatric gastroenterology, Dr. Dubinsky holds positions of prominence with several advisory bodies, including Chair of the Western Regional Pediatric IBD Research Alliance and President of We Care in IBD. She is a member of several professional societies, including the American Gastroenterology Association, the American College of Gastroenterology, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Dr. Dubinsky’s work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals, including Gastroenterology, The Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, and the American Journal of Gastroenterology. In addition, she has authored book chapters for Trends in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Therapy and Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Diagnosis and Therapeutics. Dr. Dubinsky has lectured widely nationally and internationally. Dr. Dubinsky’s main research interests are the influence of genetics and immune responses on the variability in clinical presentations of early-onset IBD and prognosis. Additional interests include the study of pharmacogenetics to evaluate how heredity influences drug responses and optimizing and individualizing the management of IBD as well as the impact of IBD on fertility and pregnancy.
Shervin Rabizadeh, MD, MBA
Chair, Department of Pediatrics
Associate Director, Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s
Director, Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology
Director, Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease Program
Associate Professor, Pediatrics
Shervin Rabizadeh is the Chair of Pediatrics and Associate Director of Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s. He joined Cedars-Sinai in 2008 after completing medical training at Tufts University School of Medicine and pediatric residency, pediatric chief residency, and pediatric gastroenterology fellowship at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. In 2014, he became the director of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) as well as medial director of the Maxine Dunitz Children’s Health Center clinic at Cedars-Sinai before assuming his role as department chair in 2020.
Dr. Rabizadeh has established one of the largest pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) programs with cutting edge care and research for this debilitating chronic disease. Currently, he is the Principal Investigator (PI), institutional PI and co-PI of multiple clinical trials, multicenter pediatric IBD research project, and investigator-initiated projects including optimizing drug therapies in pediatric IBD and investigating innovative models to understand the phenotypic changes in subgroups of IBD patients such as those with very early onset IBD patients (patients diagnosed less than 6 years of age). He continues to publish peer-reviewed manuscripts, reviews and chapters and is an active participant on national pediatric IBD committees.
Dermot McGovern, MD, PhD, MRCP(UK)
Director, Translational Medicine, Inflammatory Bowel and Immunobiology Research Institute, Gastroenterology
Dermot McGovern, MD, Ph.D., FRCP(Lon), is the Director of Translational Medicine and Professor of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Dr. McGovern serves on the Steering Committee of the NIDDK IBD Genetics Consortium, the Management Committee of the International IBD Genetics Consortium, and the National Scientific Advisory Board of the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation. Dr. McGovern completed his clinical training with a focus on Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis in Oxford, UK, and holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford on IBD Genetics. Dr. McGovern has been elected a Fellow of The Royal College of Physicians, London, and The American Society of Clinical Investigation.
Dr. McGovern’s research group received funding from the NIH, the European Union, The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, and the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation. The group's research has focused on identifying IBD susceptibility genes and also the functional consequences of these genes as well as the way genetic variation interacts with environmental factors including the microbiome. As an IBD clinician, Dr. McGovern is particularly interested in translating these basic science findings to the clinic through the development of models that predict disease behavior and response to therapy, as well as identifying new areas for the development of treatments for both Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Dr. McGovern’s group has published numerous publications, in journals including Nature, Science, Nature Genetics, The American Journal of Human Genetics, The Lancet, GUT, and Gastroenterology. Dr. McGovern has joined Stacy in raising money and awareness for IBD through 1/2 marathon and triathlons!