Research News

Cleveland Clinic is sending a postdoctoral fellow to England to help establish a global exchange program with Cleveland Clinic London. Tatum Sass, PhD, who was selected as the inaugural fellow of the Cleveland Clinic Postdoctoral Exchange Program, will work on an inflammatory bowel disease research project to foster multi-institutional collaboration and knowledge.  

Dr. Sass, a recent Harvard University graduate, will spend six months training at Cleveland Clinic’s main campus in Cleveland, Ohio, before traveling to England to spend a year working with Cleveland Clinic London and Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). While in London, she will learn from researchers at both institutions and work in the labs at QMUL. 

The fellowship exchange is part of a pilot initiative to strengthen collaborations between Cleveland Clinic London and its academic partners and lay the foundation for future scientist exchanges across Cleveland Clinic's global sites.

Dr. Sass sat down with us to discuss the fellowship and the opportunities she is looking forward to.  

Why are you excited about this fellowship?  

This fellowship offers a lot of unique opportunities. Not only will I be able to live and work abroad, I will also be collaborating across institutions. I will be researching alongside world-class researchers and sharing our findings with the teams in London and Cleveland. This will push me to build my skills as a scientist and a communicator. 

What will your research focus on?  

The human gut is a complex environment that is still largely unexplored. While most research has focused on bacteria in the human gut, my project will focus on understanding the role of gut fungus in scar tissue formation for Crohn’s disease. 

One of the most interesting things about this area of research is the patient-to-patient variability. Each patient’s gut environment is unique, which makes it difficult to follow a basic standard of care. This presents a great opportunity to explore personalized medicine and learn how we can treat patients based on individual differences in their gut health.  

Why did you want to join Cleveland Clinic? 

I love the idea of being able to keep patients as the focus for why research is so important. When I started looking for fellowship positions across the United States, Cleveland Clinic was at the top of my list because patients are at the heart of everything. I’ll have the opportunity to do research that can help patients right there at the hospital.