Bio
Dr. Sohail Husain, MD, is the Chambers-Okamura Endowed Professor and Chief of the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at Stanford. He assumed the position as Chief in 2019, with the vision for Stanford to serve as the pre-eminent provider of pediatric GI care in the region and to emerge as a global leader in pediatric GI research and education and a destination site for highly recognized programs of excellence. The mission that he promotes for the Division is to “heal children with digestive disease through innovation.”
Sohail likes to be a matchmaker. At Stanford, he intends to marry science and medicine. Early on in his career, he became entrenched in a quest to decipher the mechanisms underlying disorders of the exocrine pancreas. Sohail’s research investigates three broad areas relating to the exocrine pancreas: (1) The crucial molecular and immune signaling pathways that initiate and transduce pancreatitis; (2) the factors that turn on pancreatic regeneration and recovery after pancreatic injury; and (3) the mechanisms underlying drug-induced pancreatitis. The overarching goal is to move the needle on science and medicine and to elevate work in the exocrine field to the highest levels of impact, by leveraging multi-omics, big data, and the rich, cutting edge environment across Stanford. The mission of Sohail’s research group is to “make breakthroughs in the pancreas and beyond that benefit patients and society, through innovation, partnerships, inclusion, and integrity.”
Sohail takes pride in the institutions that trained him. This includes Tufts University, where he earned an MD, New York University, where he did his Pediatric residency, and Yale University, where he trained as a Pediatric GI fellow. Before moving to Stanford, Sohail served as Director of the Pediatric Exocrine Pancreatic Disorders Program at the University of Pittsburgh.
Sohail enjoys hiking, swimming, and jogging. He is actively involved in humanitarian projects, with Humanity First USA, including taking disaster relief trips after the 2005 tsunami to Banda Aceh (Indonesia), the 2006 hurricane Katrina to New Orleans, and the 2010 earthquake to Port-au-Prince (Haiti). He was born in India, raised in Brooklyn, and now resides in the beautiful Bay Area.
