Dr. Steven Moss has been named iCubed’s Featured Researcher of the Month for March 2013. In addition to his role as a key collaborator with iCubed, Dr. Moss is a professor of medicine and the director of the Brown University gastroenterology fellowship training program. The program trains post-resident physicians in gastroenterology. He is also an attending physician at Rhode Island Hospital and director of endoscopy at the Providence VA Medical Center.

Dr. Moss’ core research interest is investigating the effects of the stomach bacterium H. pylori. While he was a junior physician, the bacterium was discovered by two Australian doctors who later won the Nobel Prize in medicine for the finding. Their research revealed that H. pylori is the main cause of stomach ulcers and stomach cancer and that eradicating this infection can prevent both these diseases.

Over the course of his research career, Dr. Moss has investigated the mechanisms through which H. pylori promotes ulcers and cancer on a cellular and molecular basis. His collaboration with URI and EpiVax, Inc. over the last few years has been to develop a vaccine against the bacterium. Dr. Moss believes a vaccine would be a more effective and cheaper way of preventing H. pylori-associated diseases rather than the complicated drug therapies commonly used, especially in the developing world where stomach cancer is still a common cause of death.

Dr. Moss says it has been exciting for him to partner up with Dr. De Groot and Dr. Moise and apply their knowledge of H. pylori to a global health challenge. His hope is that success with the project will one day make a major clinical impact on gastric cancer.

In addition to his medical degree from University College Hospital Medical School in London, Dr. Moss also holds a bachelor of science degree in immunology.