CMIT Clinical Scholar receives prestigious AGA award

Jason (Yanjia) Zhang, MD, PhD—a CMIT Clinical Scholar and Attending Physician in Boston Children’s Hospital Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition—was one of six recipients selected for the American Gastroenterological Society’s 2024 Research Scholar Awards for early career investigators. 

Dr. Zhang received the award for his project entitled “Enteroendocrine cell activation by the gut microbiome”, in which he is investigating the role of Blautia species—common commensal bacteria in the human gut that are depleted in people with obesity and diabetes—in satiety and eating behavior. Dr. Zhang previously found that Blautia are also depleted in children with Loss of Control eating, a common form of disordered eating that carries a significant risk for developing obesity, identified the gut metabolites associated with these species, and showed that they activate gut epithelial cells. He is now investigating the effects of these Blautia-secreted metabolites in vivo.