Monique Barakat, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Medicine, Stanford University

Research Description: As a therapeutic endoscopist and physician-scientist, my goal is to study and improve therapeutic endoscopic care for adults and children and understand the mechanisms underlying pancreatic and biliary conditions that impact endoscopic care. I am an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine in the Divisions of Pediatric and Adult Gastroenterology & Hepatology at Stanford. I also serve as Associate Director of Pediatric Endoscopy. My research and clinical trajectories have been constructed upon the strong foundation in molecular and cellular biology research developed during my undergraduate and Medical Scientist Training Program (MD, PhD) studies. In graduate school, I studied the role of a small sub-cellular organelle, the primary cilium, in cell signaling and malignant transformation. This basic science laboratory experience refined my rigorous, systematic approach to all research pursuits. I then initiated research projects that developed my statistical and epidemiological skill sets for the analysis of population-level data during internal medicine and gastroenterology fellowship clinical training. During my two years as an NIH T32- supported gastroenterology research fellow, I undertook additional coursework and earned clinical research certification through the Stanford Essentials of Clinical Research program and the Intensive Course in Clinical Research (ICCR) training programs through the Epidemiology, Public Health and Clinical Research Centers at Stanford. This clinical research training included rigorous instruction in prospective clinical trial design and provided the skillset necessary to successfully conduct prospective endoscopic clinical studies during my subsequent year of therapeutic endoscopy training. In my therapeutic endoscopy fellowship, I gained expertise in performing interventional/therapeutic endoscopy procedures in both children and adults. In parallel, I gained data science skills to harness the power of population-level data and informatics to address pressing clinical questions. During this time, I also initiated and conducted prospective endoscopic clinical trials and retrospective cohort studies. My primary clinical focus is on performing complex endoscopy, pancreatic and biliary therapeutic endoscopy interventions in both children and adults. I collaborate extensively with many members of the NORC.