What Is The Fund?
This in-perpetuity annual award will attract and reward talent and top minds supporting basic and /or clinical research in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). The purpose of the Fund is to recognize the importance of supporting future leaders in IBD research at Penn. The annual financial award recipients are selected from Junior Faculty, Fellows, Residents, and Medical Students who excel in research and clinical trials in the IBD field. Nominees for the annual prize will be chosen by a committee led by the Associate Chief for Research, Division of Gastroenterology, currently Dr. Gary Wu, M.D., and Gary Lichtenstein, M.D., (and their successors).
In 2023, the AMW Prize in IBD Research was awarded to Dr. Chung Sang "CS" Tse, as the 2023 Recipient of the A Mother's Wish Foundation Prize in IBD Award. CS is a board-certified Gastroenterologist and Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Tse's research is focused on addressing the non-inflammatory drivers of disease burden in inflammatory bowel diseases, including areas intersecting with healthcare delivery, healthcare utilization, health disparities, interdisciplinary care, and psychosocial health. Dr Chung Sang Tse, MD is a terrific clinician and investigator who has had a significant impact on the lives of patients suffering from IBD.
In 2022, our inaugural AMW Prize in IBD Research was given to Nichole M. Belle. Nichole is an outstanding young investigator whose research focuses on studying the molecular pathways that facilitate cross talk between intestinal epithelial cells and the immune system in order to modulate the outcomes of infections, inflammatory processes and cancer. Specifically, Dr. Belle's laboratory focuses on understanding how the epithelial layer repairs itself after injury, how epithelial cells prevent deleterious changes that lead to tumorigenesis in the face of chronic inflammation and how epithelial cells influence the immune landscape.
