About

Joel R. Pekow, MD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine at The University of Chicago. His laboratory primarily investigates mechanisms of disease progression, response to therapy, and colon cancer development in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. His research encompasses a range of clinical interests including colon cancer, Crohn's disease, fecal microbiota transplantation, inflammatory bowel disease, intestinal ultrasound, recurrent Clostridium difficile infection, and ulcerative colitis. Dr. Pekow's work involves studying real-world effectiveness and safety of various treatments such as Upadacitinib, Ustekinumab, Mirikizumab, and Ozanimod in inflammatory bowel disease, as well as developing luminescent biosensors for calprotectin. His contributions include analyzing endoscopic phenotypes, disease activity indices, and transition of J-pouch phenotypes over time, advancing understanding of disease mechanisms and therapeutic responses in inflammatory bowel disease.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Internal medicine
• Biology
• Gastroenterology
• Genetics
• Computational biology
• Surgery
• Pathology
• Microbiology

Selected publications

• Sa1525 PROGNOSTIC VALUE OF EARLY ENDOSCOPIC FINDINGS IN ILEAL POUCH-ANAL ANASTAMOSIS OUTCOMES

  Gastroenterology · 2026-05-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Su1677 BASELINE PREDICTORS AND CLINICAL OUTCOMES OF RISANKIZUMAB DOSE OPTIMIZATION: A REAL-WORLD MULTICENTER RETROSPECTIVE STUDY

  Gastroenterology · 2026-05-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Tu1652 REAL WORLD DURABILITY OF RESPONSE AND REMISSION AND PREDICTIORS AND OUTCOMES OF DOSE RE-ESCALATION OF UPADACITINIB IN PATIENTS WITH ULCERATIVE COLITIS: A MULTICENTER STUDY

  Gastrointestinal Endoscopy · 2026-05-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Su1647 BODY MASS INDEX IS ASSOCIATED WITH THE NEED FOR USTEKINUMAB FREQUENCY INTENSIFICATION DURING MAINTENANCE PHASE IN PATIENTS WITH INFLAMAMTORY BOWEL DISEASES: PROSPECTIVE MULTICENTER DATA FROM SPARC IBD COHORT

  Gastrointestinal Endoscopy · 2026-05-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Su1647 BODY MASS INDEX IS ASSOCIATED WITH THE NEED FOR USTEKINUMAB FREQUENCY INTENSIFICATION DURING MAINTENANCE PHASE IN PATIENTS WITH INFLAMAMTORY BOWEL DISEASES: PROSPECTIVE MULTICENTER DATA FROM SPARC IBD COHORT

  Gastroenterology · 2026-05-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• REAL WORLD DURABILITY OF RESPONSE AND REMISSION WITH UPADACITINIB IN ULCERATIVE COLITIS: A MULTICENTER STUDY

  Gastroenterology · 2026-01-22

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Tu1652 REAL WORLD DURABILITY OF RESPONSE AND REMISSION AND PREDICTIORS AND OUTCOMES OF DOSE RE-ESCALATION OF UPADACITINIB IN PATIENTS WITH ULCERATIVE COLITIS: A MULTICENTER STUDY

  Gastroenterology · 2026-05-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Metabolomic Profiling of Fecal Samples Reveals Distinct Signatures Associated with Disease Phenotypes and Locations in Crohn’s Disease

  Digestive Diseases and Sciences · 2026-03-09 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Crohn's disease is a heterogeneous, transmural inflammatory condition that can involve any segment of the gastrointestinal tract. Distinct locations (ileal, colonic, ileocolonic) and phenotypes (inflammatory, stricturing, penetrating) display different clinical behaviors and complication risks in CD. Whether these location- and phenotype-specific patterns correspond to unique metabolomic profiles remains incompletely defined. METHODS: To identify metabolites associated with disease activity, location, and phenotype, ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectroscopy-based metabolomic analysis was performed on stool samples from patients with CD. Active CD was defined as patients with fecal calprotectin above 100 μg/g. Metabolite differences among groups were assessed using permutational multivariate analysis of variance. Candidate metabolites were identified and validated using multivariable linear models adjusting for demographic covariates, with false discovery rate correction. RESULTS: A total of 302 stool samples from patients with CD were analyzed. Complicated CD phenotypes (B2 and B3) showed increased acylcarnitines and secondary bile acids compared with inflammatory (B1) phenotype. Location-specific analysis indicated increased cholate, and N-acyl ethanolamides in ileal and ileocolonic compared to colonic CD. When stratified by inflammation using fecal calprotectin, patients with active disease displayed upregulation of methylysine, ceramide, sphingomyelin, and polyamines. CONCLUSION: This study reveals metabolomic differences across CD phenotypes and disease activity, providing potential noninvasive biomarkers to help risk-stratify patients for complications and guide tailored management. Further validation in larger cohorts is warranted.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Su1677 BASELINE PREDICTORS AND CLINICAL OUTCOMES OF RISANKIZUMAB DOSE OPTIMIZATION: A REAL-WORLD MULTICENTER RETROSPECTIVE STUDY

  Gastrointestinal Endoscopy · 2026-05-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Sa1525 PROGNOSTIC VALUE OF EARLY ENDOSCOPIC FINDINGS IN ILEAL POUCH-ANAL ANASTAMOSIS OUTCOMES

  Gastrointestinal Endoscopy · 2026-05-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• New model to dissect molecular pathways in IBD-neoplasia using human colonoids

  NIH · $162k · 2017–2019

• Center for Interdisciplinary Study of Inflammatory Intestinal DIsorders (C-IID)

  NIH · $35.2M · 1996–2026

• NIH Grant K08DK090152

  NIH · $732k · 2017

Frequent coauthors

• David Hudesman

  519 shared

• Sumona Saha

  UW Health University Hospital

  519 shared

• Meenakshi Bewtra

  University of Pennsylvania

  516 shared

• Parakkal Deepak

  279 shared

• Matthew A. Ciorba

  273 shared

• Richard H. Duerr

  268 shared

• Poonam Beniwal‐Patel

  Medical College of Wisconsin

  267 shared

• Shrinivas Bishu

  266 shared

Labs

• Joel R. PekowPI