The IBD-Radiology Collaborative group at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is headed by (left to right) Siyan ‘Stewart’ Cao MD, PhD, Parakkal Deepak, MBBS, MS and David H. Ballard, MD. The group is conducting basic, translational and clinical research in the field of perianal Crohn’s Disease from bedside to scanner and bench and back to bedside. Basic work has been led in the lab by Siyan Cao MD, PhD, where cutting edge techniques like single cell analysis and spatial transcriptomics are being applied to interrogate the immunology of perianal Crohn’s disease in comparison to luminal Crohn’s disease and perianal Crohn’s disease. This is being done in collaboration with the clinical trials unit led by Parakkal Deepak, MBBS, MS (Director of Clinical and Translation research for WUSM GI division) that has a robust program for deep phenotyping of patients with perianal Crohn’s disease with biospecimen recovery using the biobanking core at the NIH-funded Digestive Disease Research Core. A key focus area of the group are clinical/translational studies underway on advanced image segmentation techniques to develop automated models for image segmentation in magnetic resonance images of perianal Crohn’s disease, development of innovative protocols for higher resolution MR scans, PET-MR studies in quantifying response to therapy and testing 3D printed models in advancing the precision of medical and surgical management of perianal CD, co-led by the Mallinckrodt 3D Printing Lab where David Ballard, MD, serves as the Director. Parakkal Deepak, MBBS, MS and David H. Ballard, MD, serve as members of the Society of Abdominal Radiology Disease Focused Panel on Crohn’s disease.
