Dr. Merchant is Regents Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology/ Hepatology at the University of Arizona. She holds a joint appointment in the Department of Physiological Sciences, is Associate Director for Basic Research and more recently completed her term as interim Director of the UA Comprehensive Cancer Center. She is also an associate director of the UA MSTP. A native of Los Angeles, she received her BS in biology from Stanford University and completed her MD and PhD in Cell Biology at Yale School of Medicine. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston and subsequently a post-residency GI fellowship in molecular biology at MGH and clinical GI fellowship at UCLA. She held the H. Marvin Pollard Professorship at the University of Michigan where she was faculty from 1991-2018 prior to her recruitment to the University of Arizona in 2018.
As a molecular gastroenterologist, Dr. Merchant’s primary research interests include transcriptional control mechanisms regulating cell growth and differentiation and microbial-host interactions in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. She has applied these molecular concepts to understanding the tumor environment in GI cancers, e.g., gastric adenocarcinoma. She is a member of several professional associations, including the AAP and ASCI. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2008 and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017. She currently serves on both the AAP and National Academy of Medicine Councils. She is a member of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research Scientific Advisory Council and serves on the Dean’s Scientific Advisory Board for Yale School of Medicine. She has published over 170 research articles and has been the editor or co-editor of four books and multiple book chapters. She is currently serves on the editorial boards for Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology, Nature Reviews Gastroenterology/Hepatology and the Annual Review of Physiology.
During my tenure on the MICR, I would like to encourage more minority trainees to get involved in academic research at both the molecular and translational level by promoting sessions at AACR and other cancer related meetings. To encourage AACR sessions to teach/inform how to improve diversity in databases by supporting programs that develop best practice for community outreach. To encourage the develop of the ethical and unbiased use of AI platforms. With the rapid rise of AI platforms in medicine and research both senior researchers and trainees will need to develop rigorous approaches so as not to perpetuate bias that may hamper accessibility.