Mark Donowitz

MARK DONOWITZ, Med 1968, the George LeBoff Professor for Research in Digestive Diseases, joined the faculty in 1988 as the Moses and Helen Golden Paulson Professor of Gastroenterology and chief of the Gastroenterology Division, which he led until 1996. During his tenure, the number of faculty in the division tripled, new clinical approaches were introduced, and the division was ranked second in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Dr. Donowitz now directs the Hopkins Center for Epithelial Disorders, and leads a group that studies epithelial biology and diseases arising from abnormalities in epithelial proteins. This Center is part of an NIH/NIDDK Conte GI Core Center that Dr. Donowitz directs; the goal of which is to make GI research at JHU as outstanding and far reaching as possible. The Center emphasizes epithelial transport proteins and trafficking, GI track fibrosis, neurogastroenterology and pre-cancer and the technical areas emphasized are advanced imaging and use of human enteroids for normal physiologic studies and understanding intestinal diseases. Dr. Donowitz, the author of more than 250 articles and the editor of two books, is a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians, and has served as president of Gastroenterology Research Group. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and winner of the American Physiological Association/GI Section Distinguished Research Award and its Horace Davenport Distinguished Lectureship Award and also received the American Gastroenterological Association Distinguished Career Achievement Award for Basic Research. During his time at JHU, he has pursued encouraging scientific interactions among investigators and has been the head of three NIH support Program Project Grants, an equivalent R 24 grant and two UO1 grants. He was the president of the American Gastroenterological Association 2006-2007.