In July 2018, Dr. Merchant was recruited to head the Division of Gastroenterology/Hepatology within the Department of Medicine at the University of Arizona. She is currently Professor of Medicine, holds a joint appointment in the Department of Physiology and is a member of the UA Comprehensive Cancer Center. She is also the interim Director of the Thomas Boyer Liver Institute. A native of Los Angeles, she received her BS in biology from Stanford University and completed her MD and PhD in Cell Biology as part of the NIH-supported Medical Scientist Training Program at Yale University. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital MGH) in Boston and subsequently a post-residency GI fellowshiwith a focus on molecular biology at MGH. Subsequently she completed her clinical GI fellowshiat UCLA. In 1991 she was recruited to the University of Michigan as an Assistant Professor where she held primary and secondary appointments in the Departments of Internal Medicine and Molecular Integrative Physiology respectively and was also faculty in the Cellular and Molecular Biology graduate program. Prior to her recruitment to the University of Arizona she held the Marvin Pollard Chair in Gastrointestinal Sciences and was an Associate Director of the Michigan MSTP. As a molecular gastroenterologist, Dr. Merchant’s primary research interests include transcriptional control mechanisms regulating cell growth and differentiation and microbial-host interactions in the gastrointestinal tract. One of the major areas Dr. Merchant has made significant scientific contributions to involves the role of Hedgehog signaling in normal gastric physiology and during gastric preneoplasia. Her studies have demonstrated that the parietal cells and therefore acid secretion requires sonic hedgehog signaling. More recently, she has found that myeloid-derived suppressor cells MDSCs) require Hedgehog signaling to create a permissive environment that supports to the development of gastric metaplasia. She has published over 140 research publications and is the editor or co-editor of four books and multiple book chapters in GI Physiology. She is currently an associate editor for FASEB J, Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology, Nature Reviews Gastroenterology/Hepatology and Gastroenterology. She has remained continuously funded by NIH for nearly 30 years. In 2014, she received the American Gastroenterological Association’s AGA) Research Mentor Award, the AGA’s 2017 Distinguished Research Award and in 2020 the AGA’s Distinguished Mentor Award. She was the 1998 recipient of the Funderburg Award in Gastric Cancer. She has served on several committees for the AGA, including service on the Research Committee, and twice on AGA Council for the former Hormones and Receptors section now CMG) and currently as the GI Oncology co-Chair. Dr. Merchant is an active mentor for trainees through her service on several national advisory boards, including the Robert Wood Johnson-sponsored Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program and the advisory boards for NIH-sponsored Digestive Disease Centers at Vanderbilt Universities and previously for Washington University and UCLA) She is chair of the Program Steering Committee for the SDSU-UC San Diego NCI-funded U54 Cooperative Cancer Grant. She is a prior member of the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases NIDDK) Advisory Council and the Council of Councils, which directly advises the current director of NIH, Dr. Frances Collins, on future trends for the National Institutes of Health NIH) She is the prior chair of the Gastrointestinal Cell and Molecular Biology NIH study section and is currently chair of the NIDDK Board of Scientific Councilors BSC, 2016-2021) which reviews all of the Institute’s intramural investigators. She is a member of nine professional associations, including the Association of American Physicians AAP) and the American Society for Clinical Investigation ASCI) She was inducted into the National Academy of Medicine in 2008 and in 2017 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She currently serves as an elected member of AAP Council and National Academy of Medicine Council. She was recently named to the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research Scientific Advisory Council.