Doctor secures Harvard fellowship

Dr Garrett Lawlor has been awarded a fellowship a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital — one of the leading academic medical centres in the US.
The Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Fellowship offers a tenure at the Center for Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre (BIDMC), Boston, which is associated with Harvard Medical School.

Dr Lawlor was selected from a number of highly qualified candidates on the strength of research he conducted on colon cancer cell biology.
“Inflammatory Bowel Disease is a rapidly evolving area in modern medicine,” said Dr Lawlor, “and although we are gaining momentum in understanding the pathophysiology behind IBD, we still falter in the details.
“By identifying the basic mechanisms that drive inflammation in the gut, we can better tailor diagnostic and therapeutic approaches in the future.”
While at the centre, Dr Lawlor will conduct clinical research in IBD and gain experience using Narrow Band Imaging (NBI) to detect early cancerous changes in patients with IBD.
He will also undergo advanced training in the care and management of patients with IBD that have been refractory to conventional therapies.
Dr Lawlor expressed his hope that working with the centre he could ‘achieve a clearer framework for identifying inflammatory pathways and their targets’.
The Center for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases has an active IBD clinical and translational research program that works in partnership with immunology, surgery and radiology.
It treats over 4,000 patients per year making it one of the largest IBD practices in the US.
The fellowship is offered by the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital.
Dr Lawlor, who did his training the Mater Hospital, is the inaugural winner of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Fellowship.