Dr. Sartor is a gastroenterologist and mucosal immunologist with a long-standing interest in mechanisms by which commensal microbiota induce chronic intestinal inflammation vs. mucosal homeostasis. Dr. Sartor is the Midgette Distinguished Professor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina (UNC), where he specializes in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) and directs the UNC Multidisciplinary IBD Center. Dr. Sartor has been a faculty member at UNC for his entire academic career, where he is the Co-Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology (Research) and Co-Director of the Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease. His research is focused on developing and applying rodent models of chronic, immune-mediated intestinal inflammation relevant to IBD and performing clinically relevant translational studies of IBD patients. Dr. Sartor investigates host genetically programmed immune responses to luminal commensal microbial products using gnotobiotic rodents and patient-derived samples and studies the influence of diet and environmental factors on intestinal microbiota composition and function. He has served as a member and chair of 2 standing NIH Study Sections and Chairman of the Training Awards and Grants Review Committees of the Crohn’s Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA), Chair of the CCFA’s National Scientific Advisory Comm., and a member of the CCFA National Board of Trustees. He is currently the Chief Medical Advisor for the CCFA, Immediate Past Chair of the Immunology, Microbiology and IBD Section of the AGA and Director of the NCRR- funded National Gnotobiotic Rodent Resource Center at UNC. Dr. Sartor has served as the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Alberta IBD Consortium since 2009. Dr. Sartor has been continuously funded by the NIH since 1985, has published over 300 peer reviewed scientific manuscripts, review articles and chapters in leading scientific journals such as Nature Medicine, Journal of Clinical Investigation and Gastroenterology, and had edited 5 textbooks, including Kirsner’s Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.