Abigail Raffner Basson

My name is Abigail Raffner Basson (PhD, RD, LD), and I am a KO1-funded Instructor of Research in the Division of Gastroenterology and the Digestive Health Research Institute (DHRI) at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). My research goal is to identify mechanisms for targeted dietary manipulation of intestinal microbiota and inflammation that can be used as predictors or therapeutic modifiers of disease severity in patients affected with chronic inflammatory bowel diseases, especially Crohn’s disease (CD). As such, my research integrates basic science and translational clinical research in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), combining clinical nutrition and translational bioinformatic methodologies to identify candidate dietary nutrients that will ultimately be translated to biomarkers associated with ‘person-specific’ therapeutic strategies. Since joining the Division of Gastroenterology my research has focused on defining the relevance of mouse models of intestinal inflammation relevant to CD and ulcerative colitis, and determining the impact of nutrition and diet in IBD. Specifically, I have developed and validated a human gut microbiota transplantation mouse model of IBD, and used this biologically relevant tool to test the microbiota-mediated effect of dietary substrates on human gut communities. On the clinical component, I have focused on implementing IRB-approved strategies to validate the findings derived from my mouse work and am currently the PI of an NIH-funded diet intervention study (NCT04065048) in patients at the Digestive Health Institute at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center. I have 13 years of experience as a clinical dietitian, including 9 years of IBD-focused clinical research, and have mentored over 100 students both within the hospital and the university research setting. My diverse clinical and basic science training and research experience in nutrition, IBD, and nutrigenomics, and my cumulative teaching and mentoring experience have placed me in a unique position to pursue my research through extramurally funded research opportunities and to serve as a valuable collaborator both on a national and international level.