The principal goal of my research program has been to utilize observational epidemiology, clinical trials, and translational research to provide new insights that will improve the safety and effectiveness of medications and diagnostic tests used to treat gastrointestinal diseases, particularly inflammatory bowel diseases. One of the major areas of focus of my team has been the comparative safety and effectiveness of different medications and treatment strategies. My team’s observational epidemiology studies have leveraged the strengths of large electronic data resources including commercial claims data, Medicare and Medicaid data, and electronic health record data. We have also conducted multiple systematic reviews, meta-analyses and decision and cost-effectiveness analyses. Parallel to our pharmacoepidemiology research, my team also conducts clinical trials and translational research. I have directed several multicenter, investigator initiated clinical trials for inflammatory bowel disease, including trials of dietary therapies, placebo-controlled trials testing the efficacy of medications approved for other indications, trials of biomarker-directed dose escalation and the ongoing URBI trial comparing two different methods for dysplasia surveillance. I currently direct Penn’s Gastroenterology and Hepatology Clinical Research Program, the PennCHOP Microbiome Program’s Human Intervention Core, and Penn Center for the Nutrition Science and Medicine (PenNSAM) Human Subject Research Core. I am an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and the International Organization for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. An important part of my professional mission has been to train future generations of clinical scientists. I am the PI of Penn's T32 training grant in gastrointestinal disease clinical research and the PI and Program Director for an R25 grant that supports summer undergraduate research program including education. I have served as mentors for more than 30 gastroenterology, oncology and pharmacoepidemiology fellows, of whom 15 have gone on to secure NIH funding through K- and/or R-series grants.