URBI Team Members

James Lewis, MD, MSCE, is Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology and co-Vice-Chief for Research in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. He is Chief of Gastroenterology at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, a Senior Scholar in the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Director of Penn’s NIH-funded T32 Training Grant in GI Epidemiology. He serves as the director of the Human Research Core of Penn’s Center for Nutrition Science and Medicine and co-director of the Biomedical Data Science Core in the Center for Molecular Studies of Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease.

Dr. Klaus H. Kaestner is the Suor Butterworth Professor of Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Kaestner received his Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed a research fellowship at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg.

Dr. Hongzhe Li is Perelman Professor of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.  He is Vice Chair for Research Integration, Director of Center of Statistics in Big Data and former Chair of the Graduate Program in Biostatistic at Penn. Dr. Li’s research focuses on developing statistical and computational methods for analysis of large-scale genetic, genomics and metagenomics data and theory on high dimensional statistics.

Anna M. Buchner, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. She graduated from the Medical University of Wrocław in Poland. Dr. Buchner completed her residency in internal medicine at the University of Illinois in Chicago, followed by a fellowship in gastroenterology at Mayo Clinic Florida. 

Dr Nayantara Coelho-Prabhu is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. She is an internationally recognized expert in Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Therapeutic Endoscopy and Artificial Intelligence applications in Gastroenterology.

Dr. Coelho-Prabhu’s research focus has been in the epidemiology of dysplasia development in patients with IBD, specifically the detection and then management of this dysplasia. Her practice primarily consists of luminal endoscopic resection and other therapies. She also leads the development of AI applications in endoscopy at Mayo Clinic Rochester, having developed the first IBD dysplasia algorithm in the USA.

Hans Herfarth, MD, PhD, is Professor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina (UNC) and the Director of the UNC Multidisciplinary Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Center. His primary research interests comprise the investigation and analysis of new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). He has published > 370 peer-reviewed articles, reviews, and book chapters about IBD. Dr. Herfarth is currently a PI or Sub-PI on several investigator-initiated clinical studies in IBD, which are funded by the NIH, the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, private foundations, as well as industry.

Millie D. Long MD, MPH is board certified in internal medicine, preventive medicine and gastroenterology. Dr. Long received her medical degree from University of Virginia in 2002. She then completed residency in internal medicine and a chief residency at University of Alabama- Birmingham. She completed fellowships in gastroenterology and hepatology, preventive medicine, and inflammatory bowel disease, all at University of North Carolina. She is currently Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Raymond K. Cross, MD, MS, AGAF, FACG completed undergraduate training at Washington and Jefferson College and attended medical school at the University of Pittsburgh. He completed internal medicine residency and gastroenterology and Hepatology fellowship training at the University of Maryland Medical Center and Baltimore Veterans Affairs. Prior to fellowship, he was a Chief Medical Resident. He obtained a Master’s Degree in Clinical Research at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. He joined the faculty at the University of Maryland and served as Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Program from 2004 to 2024. In July 2024, he joined the faculty at the Melissa L. Posner Institute for Digestive Health & Liver Disease at Mercy Medical Center where he is Director of Inflammatory Bowel and Colorectal Diseases.