Meet Our Team
Principal Investigator
Berkeley Limketkai, MD, PhD
Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine
Director of Clinical Research, Center for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
Dr. Limketkai received his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati. He subsequently completed his internal medicine residency, gastroenterology fellowship, and PhD education at Johns Hopkins University. His doctoral dissertation explored the role of vitamin D in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) pathogenesis and severity. Given his clinical and research interests in IBD and nutrition, Dr. Limketkai pursued advanced training as the Theodore M. Bayless Fellow in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases at Johns Hopkins University and clinical nutrition training through the Nestlé Nutrition Institute.
Dr. Limketkai’s research focuses on the relationship between nutrition and IBD, identifying novel treatment approaches for IBD, and developing evidence-based frameworks for precision nutrition. His other focuses include analyzing large data on clinical outcomes and health services utilization and applying technology for nutrition and gastroenterology.
Vivy Cusumano, MD
Gastroenterology Fellow
Dr. Cusumano graduated from UCLA with a bachelor of science degree in biology. She then attended medical school at Albert Einstein College of Medicine before returning to UCLA to complete an internal medicine residency and continue her fellowship in gastroenterology. Her research interests include evaluating biologic response and failure in the management of patients with IBD.
Jessica Su, MD
Gastroenterology Fellow
Dr. Su graduated from Yale University with a bachelor of science degree in biomedical engineering. She then attended medical school at Stanford University before returning to Yale to complete her internal medicine residency. She is currently a fellow in the UCLA gastroenterology fellowship program.
Nancee Jaffe, RD, MS
Lead UCLA GI Dietitian
Nancee earned a master’s of science degree in nutrition from California State University Los Angeles. She completed her dietetic internship at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and at UCLA, where she was mentored by Dr. Lin Chang, co-director of the UCLA G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience. She is currently studying the reintroduction phase of the low FODMAP diet with Dr. Chang.
Neha Shah, MPH, RD
Dietitian
UC San Francisco
Neha earned a bachelor of science in nutrition from California Polytechnic State University (San Luis Obispo) and a master's in public health nutrition from Loma Linda University. She was previously at Stanford Health Care, where she built nutrition services for the Digestive Health Center.
Kush Fansiwala, MD
Internal Medicine Resident
Dr. Fansiwala graduated from New York University with a degree in economics and minors in chemistry and public health. He obtained his MD from NYU Grossman School of Medicine, where he engaged in research around population-level risk factors for gastric cancer and optimal antibiotic regimens for abscess treatment in Crohn's disease. His current research interests include clinical outcomes related to stricturing Crohn’s disease and health care disparities.
Lauren DeDecker, MD
Internal Medicine Resident
Dr. DeDecker graduated from UC Davis with a bachelor of science degree in nutrition science biochemistry. She then worked as a nutritionist and technology-driven health coach for a primary care practice in San Francisco. She later worked at a start up with the aim of providing remote scribing services to physicians using Google Glass and AI. She graduated from UC Irvine School of Medicine with her MD and honors in research.
Preeti Prakesh, MD
Internal Medicine Resident
Dr. Prakash graduated from Rice University with a BA in cognitive sciences and received her medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine. She is currently an internal medicine resident at UCLA. In medical school, she studied disparities in colon cancer outcomes.
Joseph Ebriani, Medical Student
Joseph is a first-year medical student at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He first became interested in IBD after a personal experience with the disease during his college years. He subsequently interned for the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation and volunteered as a counselor for Camp Oasis, a camp dedicated to kids diagnosed with IBD.
Aasna Shah, Medical Student
Aasna is a second-year medical student at Touro University Nevada College of Osteopathic Medicine. She has received her bachelor’s degrees in human biology and clinical psychology from the University of California, San Diego in 2019. Her first exposure to the world of clinical research was as a gastroenterology clinical research intern in 2016 at Stanford Medicine.
Isha Maniyar, Undergraduate Student
Isha is an undergraduate student majoring in molecular, cell and developmental biology. As someone who has had Crohn's disease for over 10 years, she is interested in learning more about IBD from a research perspective and contributing to existing literature focusing on symptom management and quality of life. Working as a research assistant in the Center for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, she is involved in a variety of projects exploring nutrition, fatigue, and response to medication with IBD.