Faculty

Christopher Gayer, MD, PhD, FACS, FAAP, is Chief of the Division of Pediatric Surgery and the Surgical Director of the Colorectal and Pelvic Anomalies Program at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, as well as Associate Professor of Clinical Surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Dr. Gayer joined CHLA in 2012 after completing his pediatric surgery training at Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit. His interest in intestinal diseases led him to establish the Colorectal and Pelvic Anomalies Program at CHLA. He also serves as Program Director of the Pediatric Surgery Fellowship Program.

His research focuses on signaling pathways in inflammatory intestinal disorders. Specifically, he is studying the nuclear farnesoid X receptor (FXR), a bile acid receptor. His team has found that mice without FXR are protected against intestinal epithelial injury; he is now exploring whether there’s a specific area—in either the intestine or the inflammatory pathway—where FXR is critical. His goal is to understand why this protection occurs to see if it can be manipulated in conditions where the intestinal barrier breaks down.