Dr. Fuss received his degree in Pediatrics and Pediatric Gastroenterology at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. Upon completion of his Pediatric Fellowship training in 1993 he moved to the NIH to study Mucosal Immunology with Dr. Warren Strober. Initially beginning as a post-doctoral fellow…
more and now as a Staff Clinician Scientist his work at the NIH has focused on the role of cytokine dysregulation in the pathogenesis of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. In particular, Dr. Fuss has played a significant role in establishing a variety of animal models which has helped to forge our better understanding of how differentiated cytokine Th1/Th17 and Th2 mediated responses, may lead to disease states resembling the IBD entities Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative colitis, respectively. In correlative human studies, Dr. Fuss has demonstrated the central role of the cytokine IL-12p40 subunit in Crohn’s disease and the importance of an IL-13 secreting semi-diverse Natural Killer T cell in Ulcerative colitis. These studies have been the impetus to possible new avenues of treatment for IBD patients. In relation to Crohn’s disease, Dr. Fuss and colleagues have recently demonstrated that administration of a humanized monoclonal antibody directed at the IL-12p40 subunit led to significant amelioration of disease. Moreover, in studies of patients with ulcerative colitis, Dr. Fuss and colleagues have found that the success of treatment of this inflammatory disease is correlated with a decrease in IL-13 production. Dr. Fuss’s current research interests include the further delineation of the IL-13 pathway in Ulcerative colitis and newer approaches to its treatment.
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