BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Charles O. Elson III, M.D., of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) has been appointed to the Advisory Council of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), one of the National Institutes of Health. He will serve on the Digestive Diseases and Nutrition Subcommittee.

At UAB, Elson is vice chair for research in the Department of Medicine and the Basil I. Hirschowitz Chair in Gastroenterology. His research interests include the regulation of mucosal immune responses in the digestive tract. He is a recognized authority on the investigation and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, colitis and Crohn’s disease.

Elson will serve a four-year appointment on the NIDDK Advisory Council. The council typically undertakes broad issues of science policy. Members are drawn from the scientific and lay communities. The council provides second-level peer review of grant applications that have been scored by scientific review groups. It is a liaison between the research communities they represent and the NIDDK.