Research

At UCLA Health’s Interventional Endoscopy services, research is at the forefront of innovation in gastrointestinal care. Our team leads and collaborates on multicenter clinical trials and laboratory studies to advance minimally invasive techniques for diagnosing and treating complex GI conditions. From pioneering safer endoscopic tools to developing predictive methods for pancreatic cysts and Barrett’s esophagus, we are shaping the future of digestive disease management through evidence-based discoveries and national leadership.

View PubMed publications for:

• Dr. V. Raman Muthusamy - PubMed link
• Dr. Alireza Sedarat - PubMed link
• Dr. Stephen Kim - PubMed link
• Dr. Adarsh M. Thaker - PubMed link
• Dr. Danny Issa - PubMed link
• Dr. Jennifer Kolb - PubMed link

Developing technical innovations

The program’s research aims to address practical issues in the field. For example, UCLA has been a leader in patient safety research related to past superbug outbreaks — in particular through the development, in collaboration with industry partners, of a disposable, single-use duodenoscope that is now employed worldwide as a strategy for preventing infections.

Collaboration

A major research project in collaboration with surgical colleagues at UCLA and colleagues through the University of California system is investigating ways to use endoscopy to predict the behavior of pancreatic cysts. By better understanding and characterizing these cysts, which are extremely common, doctors can make better-informed decisions on whether they need to be surgically removed. A recently published study by UCLA’s interventional endoscopy team showed that taking a biopsy of the wall of a cyst can provide valuable information, potentially avoiding the need for unnecessary surgery as well as identifying patients who would benefit most from cyst removal.

Leading therapeutic advancements

UCLA also continues to be a national leader in the use of interventional endoscopy for Barrett’s esophagus — an irritation in the esophageal lining caused by chronic reflux that has become much more common in recent years, in part due to increases in the incidence of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), which is a major esophageal cancer risk factor. Many GERD patients go on to develop Barrett’s esophagus, and a subset of those patients are found to have dysplasia. These patients can be treated effectively through endoscopic therapy, and the field is now moving toward being able to predict which Barrett’s esophagus patients without dysplasia will develop the pre-cancerous condition so that those patients can be treated before they reach that point. UCLA has been a driving force in that research and is part of a consortium for Barrett’s esophagus studies.

Changing the standard of care

These and other research efforts not only expand the indications for interventional endoscopy, but also validate its successes so that patients and physicians alike can confidently choose endoscopic procedures with the reassurance that they will be as effective as traditional surgical approaches. Through their research, UCLA’s interventional endoscopists are helping to bring safe, minimally invasive treatments to patients who would not otherwise have access to them.