• Amir Kagalwalla, MD
  CEGIR Investigator
• Department of Pediatrics; Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition
• Email : Akagalwalla@luriechildrens.org

Dr. Kagalwalla’s website

Dr. Kagalwalla has had strong clinical and investigative interests in eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) since he joined Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago (Lurie Children’s), formerly Children’s Memorial Hospital, where he is currently a Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and Co-Director of the EoE program at Lurie Children’s. Over the past decade, he has focused his clinical and investigative efforts on EoE. The Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Diseases (EGID) center at Lurie Children’s has one of the largest cohorts of EoE patients in the Midwest, and sees the largest number of pediatric patients with this disease in the Chicago metropolitan area. Dr. Kagalwalla established research collaborations and publications with both pediatric and adult centers in the US, including Dr. Ikuo Hirano at Northwestern University, Dr. Steven Ackerman at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Dr. Glenn Furuta at the University of Colorado Denver. He was the first to publish and advocate use of the Six Food Elimination Diet (SFED) in 2006 for the treatment of pediatric EoE. After moving to the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2006, he sought out Dr. Ackerman to establish clinical research studies in EoE, focusing on the roles of the eosinophil in tissue remodeling and fibrosis in EoE. He also became involved in studies developing and validating the esophageal string test (EST) as a minimally invasive approach to measure esophageal inflammation for EoE diagnosis and post-treatment management. In 2009, he was recruited back to Lurie Children’s, where he currently serves as the Co-Director of the EGID program and has established multiple IRB-approved protocols focusing on EoE. These protocols include the performance of the EST looking at epithelial mesenchymal transition eosinophil-mediated esophageal remodeling and fibrosis in EoE; a multi-site collaboration based out of the University of Bern, Switzerland for the development and validation of an EoE activity index; a prospective longitudinal noninvasive biomarker study in EoE being piloted at Lurie Children’s; and two Lurie Children’s-based prospective studies looking at cow’s milk elimination to treat EoE and the Four Food Elimination Diet (4-FED) to treat EoE proposed in the current application.

• Joshua Wechsler, MD
  CEGIR Investigator
• Department of Pediatrics; Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition
• Email : JWechsler@luriechildrens.org

Dr. Wechsler’s website

Dr. Wechsler is an Instructor in Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He is the recipient of an institutional Pediatric Physician Scientist Award to study the role of histamine and its receptors in inflammatory and allergic reactions in the GI tract. In 2013, he received the Young Faculty Investigator Award for the North American Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition. He is an active participant in the clinical research protocols as part of the EGID Program at Lurie Children’s.

• Barry Wershil, MD
  CEGIR Investigator
• Department of Pediatrics; Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition
• Email : Bwershil@luriechildrens.org

Dr. Wershil’s website

Dr. Wershil is the Director of the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, a Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and Co-Director of the EGID Program at Lurie Children’s. He graduated with Honors from Washington University in St. Louis, and matriculated at Washington University School of Medicine. He then began a Clinical and Research fellowship in the Combined Program in Pediatric Gastroenterology at Harvard Medical School led by Dr. W. Allan Walker. As a research fellow, he worked under the mentorship of Dr. Stephen Galli, where he developed a novel in vivo system to analyze mast cell function. After completion of his fellowship, he joined the faculty at Harvard Medical School. His research focused on mast cell and eosinophil participation in inflammatory and allergy reactions in the gastrointestinal tract. He moved to become the Vice Chairman of Pediatrics for Research and Education at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, where he led the growth of the research enterprise for the Department of Pediatrics. He then became the Director of the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology at The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is now the Director of the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago and Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. He is also the Co-Director of the Eosinophilic Esophagitis Program at the Hospital and Co-Director of the Pediatric GI Fellowship at the Medical School. He has helped to build the Division into a leading clinical research program, which is now ranked in the top 10 Pediatric GI programs in the country.

Dr. Wershil’s laboratory focuses on mast cell/nerve interactions in the gut, and the pathogenesis of eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE). This group has developed specific and novel animal models for the analysis of mast cell function in experimental gastrointestinal inflammatory and allergic reactions. He is also active in clinical research investigating biomarkers of EoE, as well as new drugs and dietary approaches to treat the disease. Dr. Wershil is an elected member of the Society of Pediatric Research. He has over 90 original publications. He has served on various review panels for journals and grant agencies including the NIH, CCFA, NASPGHAN, and APFED. He has been an Associate Editor of the Journal of Immunology, World Journal of Gastroenterology, and the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition. He is one of the original members of the International Gastrointestinal Eosinophil Researchers (TIGERs). His research has been supported by the NIH, Glaxo Smith Kline, and the American Partnership for Eosinophilic Disorders (APFED). He has trained both clinical and research investigators in his laboratory and through the training programs at the institutions where he has served as a leader.