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Matthew Ciorba, MD

Professor of Medicine
Washington University School of Medicine

Matthew A Ciorba, MD, Professor of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine

Dr. Matthew Ciorba is a gastroenterologist, biomedical researcher, and academic leader dedicated to advancing care in the Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) and Colon Cancer. My clinical expertise is in caring for patients with Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis and preventing colon cancer. I am Director of the IBD Center at Washington University and lead one of the largest clinical teams in the US dedicated to providing comprehensive and cutting-edge clinical care to more than 8000 patients affected by IBD.

Our research is inspired by the challenges endured by patients affected by colon cancer and the inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) including Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative Colitis. My basic-translational research program is dedicated to defining pathways and mechanisms of intestinal inflammation and the transition to colon cancer. We focus largely on the epithelial response to inflammation, injury and repair. To date, our lab investigations have spawned four ground-breaking Bench-to-Bedside clinical trials addressing unmet patient needs in colitis, enteritis and rectal cancer using probiotics, novel immunotherapies and manipulating bile acids. In addition to my own lab, I am also Director of IBD Research at Washington University and use this platform to foster collaborative discovery between our world-class scientific investigators and our robust clinical program.

To facilitate our studies, we have expertise in numerous methodologies and resources (colitis and cancer modeling, GEMMs, organoids, human tissues, etc). We also pioneered methods to facilitate robust in vitro growth of human intestinal epithelial cells as spheroids, 2D monolayers and tumoroids. Our Digestive Diseases Center Cores Center (DDRCC) has now incorporated this resource into a Precision Animal Models and Organoids Core (PAMOC) for which I serve as co-director.

Finally, I am deeply committed to training the next generation of medical investigators who will advance discovery and treatment of digestive diseases. Supporting this mission, I am Director of the Washington University Advanced IBD Fellowship and Associate Director of our GI Fellowship’s T32 Research Training grant. I also lead or participate in training grant review committees for several organizations including the CCF, AGA and NIH. Several of my trainees now hold faculty positions across the US.

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