Medicine Grand Rounds - Dr. Jody Baron

Jody Baron, MD, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. 

I am a physician-scientist who has focused my career on combining my medical (Infectious Diseases) and scientific training (Immunology and Virology) to understand mechanisms of disease pathogenesis; and to translate this knowledge into new treatments. Initially, I chose to focus my research efforts on the study of a major global pathogen, hepatitis B virus (HBV). My laboratory has focused on developing transgenic mouse models of primary HBV infection that mimic key aspects of age-dependent HBV clearance and persistence in humans, to enable the dissection of immune mechanisms underlying viral clearance or persistence. In parallel, we have developed a state of the art bio-repository, and a clinical research infrastructure to provide human samples with which to validate molecular mechanisms defined by our mouse models. This approach has identified new mechanisms and targets for therapeutic intervention.

Most recently, we have embarked on a clinical and translational study to test the hypothesis that withdrawal of antiviral therapy in patients with CHB is safe and can provide a second chance for effective liver immune cell organization and priming, leading to effective HBV immunity and viral clearance (mechanisms predicted from our mouse model).  This cohort of patients and samples offers unique opportunity to study HBV viral clearance and persistence in humans.

To access MGR live streams and current semester recordings, please visit ETS here: DOM Medical Grand Rounds.