Maria T. Abreu, M.D.,
Director, Crohn’s and Colitis Center, Professor of Medicine, and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine
Maria T. Abreu, M.D., is the Director of the Crohn’s and Colitis Center at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, where she also serves as the Vice Chair for Research, as well as Professor for the Department of Medicine, and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology. She completed a three-year term as Chair of the International Organization for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IOIBD) in 2022. In 2019, she was elected Councilor-at-Large of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Governing Board for a term of three years. Most recently she was elected Vice President of the AGA, on the path to becoming President. She will be the fifth woman to hold this position.
Dr. Abreu is a recipient of the 2019 Sherman Prize by The Bruce and Cynthia Sherman Charitable Foundation that recognizes outstanding achievements in IBD. In 2020, she received the Mentoring Award from the IMIBD section of the AGA. In Fall of 2020, she received the Healio’s Lifetime Disruptor Award. This award goes to a gastroenterologist or hepatologist who consistently pushed the gastroenterology field forward through innovative treatments, practice management, patient care or research.
At this year’s Digestive Diseases Week, Dr. Abreu gave the Morton Grossman Lecture and at the Florida Gastroenterology Society Annual Meeting she gave the James L. Borland, Sr. Memorial Lecture.
Dr. Abreu’s interests combine clinical aspects of inflammatory bowel disease with translational microbiome/metabolomic studies, to determine if there are changes at the most fundamental levels in patients. Therefore, Dr. Abreu’s laboratory focuses on the host-bacterial interactions and in particular the role of toll-like receptor signaling in intestinal inflammation and neoplasia. Specifically, focusing on toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) as a model for how recognition of bacteria by TLRs in the intestine functions broadly.
Dr. Abreu has spent most of her academic career focused on advancing IBD research, with an emphasis on identifying novel therapeutic targets with potential to treat patients with IBD.