Faraz Bishehsari
Professor
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
McGovern Medical School
Department of Internal Medicine - Gastroenterology
I am the director of the Gastroenterology Research Center (GRC), a new multidisciplinary
gastroenterology research center at McGovern Medical School. The GRC will integrate
translational research with patient care, focusing on the role of the digestive tract in health and
diseases. As the largest interface between the human body and the environment and home to
trillions of micro-organisms, the digestive tract is involved in how lifestyle choices impact various
diseases spanning from immune and metabolic dysregulation to cancer.
Our center conducts cutting-edge research around the digestive tract that addresses preventive
strategies, disease modification, treatment innovations, and advanced technologies. Our team
study how lifestyle and digestive tract mechanisms interact in local and systemic homeostasis
and organ changes to discover novel therapeutics through circadian or microbial organisms and
develop patient-based, ex-vivo models using cutting-edge technologies. By studying the roles of
circadian rhythms and GI microorganisms in modulating immune responses, aging processes,
and therapies, our multidisciplinary research aims to identify targetable mechanisms like
circadian or microbiota markers. These finding can be directly translated into patient care,
spanning from risk assessment and prevention to the development of innovative therapeutics.
We are also developing a precision medicine platform for circadian based therapeutics in
cancer, focusing on the pancreatic cancer. We are exploring tumor-specific pancreatic cancer
circadian profiles toward the discovery of novel therapeutics in cancer.
McGovern Medical School Faculty
Education & Training
M.D.- Tehran University of Medical Sciences - 2003
Ph.D. - University of Chieti-Pescara- 2008