Stephan Targan, MD, has dedicated his career to investigating and combating inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). One donor’s gift empowered him to build the F. Widjaja Foundation Inflammatory Bowel and Immunobiology Research Institute into an investigatory powerhouse with international influence in changing how the condition is treated.

The institute unites pioneering multidisciplinary investigators with the goal of increasing the speed at which potential IBD treatments can be applied. They work in synergy to define the genetic and biological characteristics most likely to respond to specific therapeutics. Institute scientists were the first to reveal the role of intestinal fungus in IBD, opening up paths to future therapies. Another team employed stem cell research to create miniature gut replicas in the lab.

The philanthropic gift also allowed Targan, the Feintech Family Chair in Inflammatory Bowel Disease, to expand the Cedars-Sinai Material and Information Resources for Inflammatory and Digestive Diseases Biobank. It is the world’s largest collection of IBD specimens, with 20,000 individuals to date participating in Cedars-Sinai IBD studies.

► Other precision medicine advances included demonstrating that adding hormone therapy to radiation treatment can improve the average long-term survival of men with prostate cancer whose prostates have been removed.