FUNDING GROUNDBREAKING SCIENCE SINCE 1961

With each grant request, we ask, “How will this, or how could this, improve patient outcomes and eliminate suffering?”

Research Grants

Fueling Breakthroughs in Digestive Disease Research

At the GI Research Foundation, we provide crucial seed funding for novel research—empowering investigators to pursue bold, unexplored ideas that might otherwise go unfunded.

Our funding focuses on key areas that drive discovery from the lab to the patient’s bedside, advancing new ways to understand, diagnose, and treat digestive diseases while working toward prevention and cures.

Innovative Research: We support cutting-edge projects that struggle to secure funding from traditional sources.
State-of-the-Art Infrastructure: We invest in world-class facilities and advanced technology to attract top scientists and achieve breakthrough results.
Early-Career Scientists: We provide Young Investigator Awards to nurture the next generation of researchers and fuel bold new ideas.
Health Equity: We fund targeted initiatives to expand access to prevention and care for communities of color, addressing disparities in digestive disease treatment.

Our research grants are guided by our scientific advisors and a lay review committee, ensuring that the most promising studies receive support.

Thanks to donors like you, our grant funding has grown exponentially, allowing us to launch game-changing initiatives like CA CURE and our newest “moonshot” in regenerative medicine. Your generosity is making transformative discoveries possible.

Scientists in protective suits in a science laboratory study a virus

FY2025

Past Funding

FY2024

Orlando DeLeon, PhD | Examination of Gut Mucosal Populations and Dynamics During Region-Specific Microbiota Transplants that Drive Persistent, Off-Target Consequences to the Host
Cambrian Liu, PhD | Building Experimental Tools to Assess the Gut Microbiome’s Effects on Gastrointestinal Regeneration
Kinga S. Olortegui, MD & Marita Kametas, MSN | Evaluating the Incidence of and Treatments for Peristomal Pyoderma Gangrenosum
David T. Rubin, MD & Joëlle St-Pierre, MD, PhD | Stop-UC: De-Escalation of Therapy In Patients With Ulcerative Colitis With Histological Normalization and Rescue Through Autologous Fecal Microbiota Transplant
David Zemmour, MD, PhD | Understanding Colon-Specific Regulatory T Cells and their Cellular Crosstalk in Ulcerative Colitis
Marc Bissonnette, MD | DNA Methylation as a Biomarker of Ulcerative Colitis Dysplasia in Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC)
Bradford Chong, MD | Pancreatic Cancer Outcomes: The Role of Social Determinants of Health in an Urban Cohort
Matthew Odenwald, MD, PhD | Characterization of Novel Bile Acids in Patients with Liver Disease

FY2023

Cambrian Liu, PhD | Reprogramming Stem Cells to Heal Inflammation
David T. Rubin, MD & Ashley Sidebottom, PhD | Understanding the Role of Gut Inflammation as a Cause of Anxiety and Depression in IBD
Benjamin Shogan, MD & Tao Pan, PhD | How Tumor Genetics and Diet Impact Colorectal Cancer Recurrence
Bozhi Tian, PhD & Jiping Yue, MD | Optimizing the Gut Environment for Better Health
Yanchun Li, PhD | How Targeting Cell Aging Could Open New Treatments for IBD
Valerie Abadie, PhD | Loss of Tolerance to Commensal Microbiota in the Context of Celiac Disease: Implications for Disease Development and Progression