Disease Interception and Prevention
Inflammatory bowel disease begins years before symptoms appear. The Spencer Lab studies multiplex families and first-degree relatives of people with IBD, integrating genomic, microbiome, metabolomic, and immunologic data to characterize the preclinical phase of disease. This NIDDK-funded work forms the foundation of the Mount Sinai IBD Prevention Program and informs scalable strategies for primary and secondary prevention.
Precision Medicine in Pediatric IBD
For children already living with IBD, the goal is the right therapy, at the right dose, at the right time. The lab’s work spans therapeutic drug monitoring, pharmacogenomics, and real-world effectiveness of advanced therapies, including early pediatric experience with JAK inhibitors, IL-23 inhibitors, and combination biologic therapy.
Questions driving this work include:
- Which biomarkers best predict response to a given advanced therapy?
- How can noninvasive tools, such as intestinal ultrasound and skin tape strip transcriptomics, guide treat-to-target care?
- How do novel and off-label therapies perform in real-world pediatric practice?
Clinical-Translational Programs
The lab’s research is built into clinical care at the Susan and Leonard Feinstein IBD Center through programs that serve as platforms for both patient care and discovery:
- IBD Prevention Clinic: the world’s first dedicated clinic for people at high risk of developing IBD
- IBD-Dermatology Multidisciplinary Clinic: integrated care for patients with IBD and coexisting skin conditions
- New Drug Start Program: standardized monitoring and real-world data capture for patients starting new therapies
- Intestinal Ultrasound: point-of-care, noninvasive monitoring of disease activity
Meet Dr. Spencer
Elizabeth A. Spencer, MD, MS, is Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She is an NIH-funded physician-scientist whose clinical practice is dedicated to pediatric IBD. She co-founded and co-directs the IBD Prevention Clinic and the IBD-Dermatology Multidisciplinary Clinic.
Meet Dr. Spencer
Elizabeth A. Spencer, MD, MS, is Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She is an NIH-funded physician-scientist whose clinical practice is dedicated to pediatric IBD. She co-founded and co-directs the IBD Prevention Clinic and the IBD-Dermatology Multidisciplinary Clinic.