Serre-Yu Wong LabIcahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Research

Our work spans three connected areas: clinical, translational, and basic science.

01

Clinical

Patient-facing research in the multidisciplinary perianal Crohn's clinic: disease course, outcomes, imaging, quality of life, and clinical trials.

Members of the Mount Sinai perianal Crohn's disease clinical and research program
Image: TOpClass consortium — Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai program page. Source

Clinical & Translational Perianal Crohn's Research

Dr. Wong established the perianal Crohn's clinic with colorectal surgeon Dr. Sergey Khaitov with the goal of combining collaborative multidisciplinary strategies, state-of-the-art care, and clinical trials to improve the lives of patients with perianal Crohn's disease.

The program addresses a full spectrum of topics including quality of life and psychosocial impact, disease course and outcomes, nutrition and wound healing, the association of perianal Crohn's disease with hidradenitis suppurativa, clinical trials, and translational science studies.

  • Clinical outcomes and natural history
  • MRI and examination-under-anesthesia research
  • Quality of life and psychosocial impact
  • Clinical trials and translational biospecimen studies

02

Translational

Tissue and biospecimen studies that connect the clinical course of perianal fistulizing Crohn's disease to what we see in patient tissue.

Medical illustration of the human digestive tract, including the colon, rectum and anus
Image: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health. Source

Perianal Fistula Biology

Perianal fistulizing Crohn's disease remains one of the most difficult manifestations of Crohn's disease to treat. Our work asks a deceptively simple question: why does a tract form through the tissue of the anorectum, and why does it so often persist or recur even when luminal inflammation is controlled?

We approach fistula biology as a tissue problem as much as an inflammatory one, studying the cells that line and surround fistula tracts alongside the clinical course of the patients from whom those tissues are obtained.

  • Mechanisms of fistula formation and persistence
  • Recurrence after medical and surgical therapy
  • Failure of wound closure in the anorectum
  • Tissue and biospecimen studies linked to clinical phenotype
Graphical abstract summarising goblet cell loss linked to NOD2, dysbiosis and epithelial MyD88 in Crohn's disease
Image: Wong SY et al., Cell Mol Gastroenterol Hepatol 2025 (open access, PMC12506532) — graphical abstract. Source

Epithelial Identity, Wound Healing & Tissue Remodeling

The anal canal and the rectum are immediately adjacent but are lined by different epithelium. Understanding that boundary — and what happens to epithelial identity when a fistula tract forms through it — is central to our tissue work.

Published work from the lab has linked goblet cell loss in Crohn's disease to NOD2 and secondary resection, and showed that this loss is induced by dysbiosis and epithelial MyD88. We extend this epithelial focus to wound repair, stromal and fibroblast biology, and tissue remodeling in the perianal region, using spatial and transcriptomic approaches on patient tissue.

  • Epithelial identity at the anal transition zone
  • Cells lining fistula tracts
  • Spatial transcriptomics of patient tissue
  • Wound repair, stromal and fibroblast biology, tissue remodeling

03

Basic Science

Laboratory work on how microbes interact with intestinal tissue and the immune system, including NOD2, MyD88, and goblet cell biology.

Microscopy panels of intestinal epithelium from the NOD2, dysbiosis and epithelial MyD88 study
Image: Wong SY et al., Cell Mol Gastroenterol Hepatol 2025 (open access, PMC12506532) — Figure 5. Source

Host–Microbe Interactions

Dr. Wong's research focus is on how inflammation begins in Crohn's disease. Through basic and translational research, the lab studies how microbes interact with intestinal tissue and the immune system.

In perianal Crohn's disease specifically, translational science studies in the Mount Sinai program work to define microbial signatures and to explore host–microbe interactions.

  • Microbial communities in Crohn's disease and in perianal fistulas
  • Microbial signatures of perianal Crohn's disease
  • Dysbiosis and epithelial innate immune signaling
  • NOD2, MyD88, and goblet cell biology

04

Other

Collaborative and emerging projects, consensus and education efforts, and new directions from clinic and bench.

Illustration comparing normal intestinal lining with inflammation and scarring seen in Crohn's disease
Image: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health. Source

Other Research Interests

Beyond our core clinical, translational, and basic science programs, the lab pursues collaborative and emerging projects with colleagues across gastroenterology, colorectal surgery, dermatology, radiology, and pathology.

These include education and consensus efforts, methodology development, and new directions that grow out of questions raised in clinic and at the bench.

  • Multidisciplinary and cross-institutional collaborations
  • Consensus statements, reviews, and education
  • Methodology and new-technology development
  • Emerging projects and trainee-led studies

Publications by Research Area