Matthew Coates, MD, PhD

Dr. Coates started his biomedical research career at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, where he completed his PhD (2005) and MD (2007) as well as a residency in Internal Medicine (2010). During that time, he worked in the laboratory of Dr. Gary Mawe and secured a Ruth L. Kirchstein NRSA Fellowship to study the influence of serotonin signaling in irritable bowel syndrome (and other disorders of the gut). Dr. Coates went on to complete a T32 fellowship in Gastroenterology & Hepatology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (2013), training with Drs. Klaus Bielefeldt and Brian Davis to investigate the underlying drivers of abdominal pain in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). After continuing this work as an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh College of Medicine and Pittsburgh VA Medical center for two years, Dr. Coates joined the faculty in the Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology at the Penn State College of Medicine in 2015. Since joining Penn State, Dr. Coates has been investigating abdominal pain disorders of the gut and has secured a NIH NIDDK R01 award to study the role of a particular voltage-gated sodium channel (NaV1.8) in the pathophysiology of hypoalgesic (“silent”) IBD. He has also helped to develop The Penn State Gastroenterology Data Registry and Biobank and currently serves as the director of this resource (which is designed to promote collaborative and innovative translational scientific research relating to digestive disease).