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The Sherman Emerging Leader Prize winner says she’s motivated by seeing her patients thrive and helping others in their medical careers.
For Oriana Damas, M.D., associate professor of medicine in the Division of Digestive Health and Liver Diseases at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, the work of improving care and outcomes for underserved patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), particularly within the Latino community, has been a driving force since her days as a medical student at the Miller School.
As a student, Dr. Damas, now also interim director and director of translational studies at the Crohn’s and Colitis Center, organized Spanish language tutorials for her peers to better serve Miami’s diverse patient population.
“If a Spanish class could improve the interactions between students and patients,” she recalled, “I was intent on making it happen.”
She has been making things happen in gastroenterology ever since.
Early Work in IBD Research
Early in her career, Dr. Damas worked with her mentors to establish the UHealth—University of Miami Health System Crohn’s and Colitis Center Clinical Phenotype Database and Tissue Repository. During her gastroenterology fellowship, she secured a research grant to study the genetics of Hispanic patients with IBD. With that support, she became one of the first scientists to describe the unique phenotype of Hispanic patients, including their genetic risk factors, dysplasia rates, dietary patterns and social determinants of health.
What fuels me is seeing a patient thrive, answering a research question and helping someone grow in their career. Making these differences is what it is all about.
Dr. Oriana Damas
After completing her fellowship, Dr. Damas joined the Miller School faculty. There, she led a pivotal study demonstrating that Hispanic patients with IBD often carry TPMT genetic variants, predisposing them to leukopenia, or low white blood cell count, when treated with thiopurines. Her team also identified NUDT15 variants, especially in patients with higher Indigenous American ancestry, which further increased leukopenia risk. This groundbreaking research earned her the 2022 Disparities Researchers Equalizing Access for Minorities Award and made her the first member of her division to receive a National Institutes of Health (NIH) K23 Career Development Award.
Studying the Understudied
Dr. Damas has also been a leader in clinical trials. She organized a study to test whether a plant-based diet could improve outcomes in ulcerative colitis patients treated with tofacitinib, highlighting her commitment to addressing research gaps for specific populations.
“I am always trying to understand understudied groups,” she explained. “Patients with ulcerative colitis, in particular, have not been adequately studied in dietary research. That is why I wanted to test whether diet could enhance response to medical therapy.”
Her NIH-funded research has also revealed that Cuban immigrants develop IBD much earlier after arriving in the United States than in past decades—an average of eight years after immigration compared to 32 years in 1980. These findings suggest environmental influences and led her to expand the study to include immigrants from across Latin America and the Caribbean.
Most recently, Dr. Damas identified another gap. Dietary recommendations for ulcerative colitis patients are largely based on the Mediterranean diet, which may not reflect the cultural food traditions of American populations, including the diverse community in South Florida.
“It is hard to tell patients who grew up eating their native foods to adapt their diets to those of another region,” she noted.
In response, she secured a five-year NIH R01 grant to develop and test a culturally tailored, anti-inflammatory, Americanized diet for ulcerative colitis patients, the first initiative of its kind. This trial also integrates personalized medicine by factoring in genetics and the gut microbiome to point toward one day customizing diets for individual patients.
In addition to her ulcerative colitis studies, Dr. Damas is now investigating the interplay of obesity, diet and outcomes in Crohn’s disease. Through an ongoing clinical trial, her team is examining how weight loss, including with the help of weight loss medications, may reduce gut inflammation.
Clinically, Dr. Damas leads the Crohn’s and Colitis Center, where she is one of only two IBD specialists in Miami offering intestinal ultrasound, a noninvasive method of assessing intestinal inflammation.
A Growing National Reputation
For Dr. Damas, patient care and research are inseparable.
“My clinic is my laboratory,” she said. “My patients inspire my research to improve outcomes, both for underserved communities and the broader IBD population.”
That dedication has brought her national recognition. She was recently awarded the Sherman Emerging Leader Prize, an honor recognizing early career professionals making transformative contributions to IBD care and research.
Beyond her research and clinical work, Dr. Damas is also a champion for women in gastroenterology, a field where women comprise less than 20 percent of practitioners and continue to face significant pay disparities. She founded the Women in GI group in South Florida to provide mentorship, support and community for women pursuing careers in the specialty.
“What fuels me is seeing a patient thrive, answering a research question and helping someone grow in their career,” she reflected. “Making these differences is what it is all about.”
Tags: clinical trials, Division of Digestive Health and Liver Diseases, Dr. Oriana Damas, gastroenterology, IBD, inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis
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