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Complex Scientific Breakthroughs Made Easy To Digest

UPMC is on the forefront of understanding complex diseases of the pancreas, intestine, and liver using genetics, biomarkers, and disease modeling. Ranked in 2012 among the top five hospitals for digestive disorders by U.S. News & World Report, UPMC has emerged as a leader in the personalized approach to the treatment — and prevention — of complex gastrointestinal diseases.

Personalized medicine represents a complete paradigm shift from the century-old germ theory of disease to a new framework that uses modeling and simulation based on a disease’s underlying mechanisms. To illustrate the limitations of the old framework and benefits of this new approach, physician-scientists at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC have studied chronic pancreatitis — a complex inflammatory disease of the pancreas characterized by irreversible morphologic changes that typically cause pain, permanent loss of digestive function, diabetes mellitus, and risk of pancreatic cancer.

A commitment to targeted, personalized medicine continued to be a primary translational research focus for the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition in Fiscal Year 2012 and continues to move forward, largely due to the division’s considerable genetics expertise and formative collaborations with other research groups within the university.

David C. Whitcomb, MD, PHD
Division Chief
Giant Eagle Foundation Professor of Cancer Genetics