Hamed Khalili, MD, MPH - Associate Director
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Dr. Hamed Khalili is the Associate Director of CTEU, Physician Investigator in the CTEU, Director of Clinical Research in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) in the Division of Gastroenterology, a gastroenterologist specialized in IBD at MGH and an Associate Professor of Medicine at HMS. Dr. Khalili earned his MD and completed his training in internal medicine at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Before joining the faculty at MGH, he completed Gastroenterology and Advanced IBD fellowship at MGH and obtained an MPH from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.​His interests include clinical and translational research in the field of IBD. He aims to better understand the environmental risk factors, particularly dietary, reproductive, and lifestyle factors, for the development IBD. He has been involved in NIH-funded research to study the complex interplay between common genetic risk loci and gut microbial environment on risk and progression of IBD.
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Projects
Defining the Pre-Disease Phase of Crohn’s Disease-Predict and Prevent
With funding from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, we have created a consortium study combining the data from three unique established cohorts that focus on the pre-disease phase of Crohn’s Disease: PREDICTS, The GEM Project, and the Nurses’ Health Study. Studying subjects during this pre-disease phase will not only identify risk biomarkers to allow risk prediction but will also identify possible triggers of disease and critical pathways in disease pathogenesis. Overall, these results will pave the way for prediction and prevention of Crohn’s Disease and could potentially lead to the identification of upstream pathways and novel therapeutic targets.
Clinical Center for NIH’s Nutrition for Precision Health: The All of Us New England Research Collaborative
Through the NIH Common Fund’s Nutrition for Precision Health Clinical Center program, we will collaborate with New England-based research teams to conduct multiple dietary intervention studies for the purpose of developing precision health for nutrition. Specifically, we will enroll a cohort of individuals heterogenous in demographics, clinical characteristics, health parameters, and disease risk factors and apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods to understand and predict an individual’s response to foods, nutrients, food components, and dietary patterns
Epidemiology of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Among US Black Women
We received funding from the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation to estimate the frequency and burden of CD and UC and to characterize treatment patterns, disease phenotypes, and quality of life at the time of diagnosis in the Black Women’s Health Study (BWHS). The findings from this project will fill a major knowledge gap in understanding the burden and causes of IBD in US Blacks. The project will also provide the necessary infrastructure and preliminary data for development of subsequent research focused on studying biological mechanisms of disparities and broad lifestyle and dietary interventions aimed at reducing the burden of IBD in US Blacks.
Medications, the gut microbiota, and risk of microscopic colitis
Through an R01 from National Institute of Aging or NIA to study the relationship between medications, the gut microbiome, and risk of microscopic colitis in older adults, we will investigate three major goals. First, we will identify pharmacologic determinants of MC, leveraging a nationwide cohort of all MC patients (n~14,000) in Sweden to identify medications associated with risk of the disease. Second, we will characterize compositional and temporal changes in the gut microbiota related to disease activity in MC (n = 200) and identify microbial signatures of MC among older adults with chronic diarrhea (n = 400) in our prospective colonoscopy-based cohort using metagenomic sequencing. Third, we will identify the microbial and metabolite mediators of the association between medications and risk of MC.
Tethered capsule endomicroscopy for detailed visualization of the Crohn's bowel wall
We received funding from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust to quantitatively and comprehensively evaluate intestinal inflammation and fibrosis in Crohn’s disease patients using minimally invasive imaging technologies and devices that will provide video endoscopy as well as deep tissue microscopic imaging of the intestines. Specifically, I serve as a consultant to help assess the feasibility and efficacy of tethered capsule in evaluating disease activity in patients with IBD
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Publications
Hua X, McGoldrick J, Nakrour N, Staller K, Chung DC, Xavier RJ, Khalili H. Gut microbiome structure and function in asymptomatic diverticulosis. Genome Med. 2024 Aug 23;16(1):105. doi: 10.1186/s13073-024-01374-9. PMID: 39180058; PMCID: PMC11342677.
Burton-Murray H, Kiser K, Gurung J, Williams K, Thomas JJ, Khalili H. Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder Symptoms Are Not as Frequent as Other Eating Disorder Symptoms When Ulcerative Colitis Is in Remission. J Crohns Colitis. 2024 Sep 3;18(9):1510-1513. doi: 10.1093/ecco-jcc/jjae052. PMID: 38635299; PMCID: PMC11369070.
Tracy MS, Challa PK, Lopes EW, Khalili H. Prevalence and Treatment Patterns of Inflammatory Bowel Disease in the All of Us Research Program. Inflamm Bowel Dis. 2024 Aug 1;30(8):1426-1429. doi: 10.1093/ibd/izad170. PMID: 37603847; PMCID: PMC11291607.
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​Group Members
Emily Walsh Lopes, CTEU Faculty
Kristin Burke, CTEU Faculty
Sheng-Yin Chen, Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Michaela Tracy, Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Lauren Sussman, Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Sara Ghoneim, Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Prasanna Challa, Data Scientist
Kevin Casey, Data Analyst
Jessica McGoldrick, Senior Project Manager
Jenny Gurung, Senior Research Coordinator
Rachel Irengo, Research Coordinator
Negin Amouei, Research Coordinator
Cecilia Woo, Research Coordinator
Yueting Lu, Research Coordinator
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