Description of Clinical Expertise

I am a double board-certified pediatric gastroenterologist, certified in both general pediatrics and pediatric gastroenterology by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) and the American Board of Pediatrics (ABP). I have also received my certification as a Nutrition Support Clinician (CNSC), and am a Fellow of the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (NASPGHAN-F).

My clinical expertise spans pediatric intestinal failure/short bowel syndrome (SBS), complex pediatric nutritional disorders, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). I have experience in both diagnostic and therapeutic pediatric endoscopy and have received formal training in the use of FibroScan® for non-invasive liver stiffness assessment. I provide comprehensive enteral and parenteral nutrition support, including advanced nutrition care in hospitalized and medically complex children.

I completed my pediatric gastroenterology fellowship through the physician-scientist track at Boston Children’s Hospital and additional training in pediatric obesity medicine through the Obesity, Metabolism and Nutrition Institute (OMNI) at Massachusetts General Hospital.

During my 9.5 years as an attending pediatric gastroenterologist at McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario, I provided broad-based pediatric GI care across the spectrum of pediatric gastrointestinal diseases. I served as the medical lead of the hospital’s Intestinal Rehabilitation Program (IRP) and helped develop the institution’s pediatric nutrition service through combined administrative leadership and clinical service delivery, including founding the hospital's first multi-disciplinary Pediatric Nutrition Advisory Committee (PNAC). My clinical interests include pediatric nutrition, intestinal failure, general pediatric gastroenterology and obesity medicine.

At the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), I currently practice in both inpatient and outpatient settings within the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition. My clinical responsibilities include covering the general pediatric GI ambulatory and inpatient services, endoscopy, nutrition support, MASLD, and IRP coverage. I also lead the development of CHOP’s pediatric donor stool bank—the first of its kind in the United States—supporting clinical and investigational use of fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) for clinical (recurrent Clostridioides difficile colitis) and research-based applications.

I am committed to delivering multidisciplinary, evidence-based care to children with complex gastrointestinal and nutritional conditions, integrating clinical excellence with a strong foundation in translational research and clinical innovation.

Description of Research Expertise

I am an attending pediatric gastroenterologist in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), clinician-scientist and supervisor of the Pai Lab, Director of the Clinical Trials Division for the CHOP Center for Microbial Medicine, and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. I am affiliated with the CHOP Center for Microbial Medicine, the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, and the CHOP Research Institute. I am also an Associate Clinical Professor at McMaster University in the Faculty of Health Sciences, and Staff Gastroenterologist (Part-Time) at McMaster Children's Hospital.

I lead a translational research program focused on microbiome-host interactions, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), and novel microbiome-based therapeutics for chronic gastrointestinal disorders in children. My work combines clinical trials and multi-omics diagnostics - including urine metabolomics, radiologic imaging, and serum proteomics - to help discover novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets across a range of chronic gastrointestinal and nutritional disorders. These include: MASLD, inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), anorexia nervosa, and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) in short bowel syndrome (SBS).

I developed the first pediatric donor fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) stool bank in Canada, and am now leading the development of CHOP’s pediatric FMT stool bank—the first of its kind in the United States. My research has included the first pilot multicenter randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the study of FMT in pediatric ulcerative colitis (UC), and my group has completed one of the first RCTs of FMT in pediatric Crohn's disease (CD). My work has received support through multiple regional and national funding agencies, with over $23 million in grant support as principal investigator, or co-investigator to date. I have also received multiple awards recognizing my contributions to pediatric nutrition and microbiome research, including the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN) Stanley J. Dudrick Mid-Career Research Scholar Award and Canadian Nutrition Society (CNS) Young Investigator Award. I hold academic, research, and leadership distinctions from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA), and North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (NASPGHAN), and serve as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (JPGN).

Through cross-disciplinary collaborations across diverse specialties, and centers in Canada and the United States, my work will continue to focus on advancing microbiome-based therapeutics, precision nutrition strategies, and biomarker discovery to identify novel approaches to managing chronic gastrointestinal and nutritional disorders.