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Maria T. Abreu, MD (she/her/hers)

Executive Director, IBD Institute
Cedars-Sinai
Coral Way, Florida

Maria T. Abreu, MD
Executive Director of the F. Widjaja IBD Institute
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
President of the American Gastroenterological Association


2025 Biography

Dr. Maria T. Abreu is a physician-scientist and gastroenterologist who specializes in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). She completed her medical degree at the University of Miami School of Medicine. Her postdoctoral training included an internship and residency in medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and a clinical and research fellowship in gastroenterology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Previously, she was an Associate Professor of Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York (and head of their IBD Center), as well as a Professor of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology at the University of Miami School of Medicine (and Director of their Crohn's and Colitis Center). She was recently appointed the Executive Director of the F. Widjaja IBD Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Dr. Abreu has 30 years of leadership experience in basic, translational, and clinical research and mentoring. She was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2010; in 2018, she was elected to the Association of American Physicians (AAP). She completed a three-year term as Chair of the International Organization for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IOIBD) in 2022. Currently, she is the President of the American Gastroenterological Association. She is the fifth woman and first Latina to hold this position.

Her work has received multiple awards and accolades. She received the 2019 Sherman Prize from the Bruce and Cynthia Sherman Charitable Foundation, which recognizes outstanding achievements in IBD. In 2020, she was bestowed with Healio’s Lifetime Disruptor Award for addressing critical unmet needs in IBD. This award goes to a gastroenterologist or hepatologist who consistently pushes the gastroenterology field forward through innovative treatments, practice management, patient care, or research.

Dr. Abreu is frequently invited as a speaker (in English and Spanish) at symposia on basic science and clinical topics all over the world. She has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed articles, books, chapters, and reviews.

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