Project Summary The Enrichment Program provides critical mechanisms to support the overall goals of the Texas Medical Center Digestive Disease Center (TMC DDC) via the following Specific Aims: 1) To share and disseminate knowledge gained from the presence of the DDC and in the larger field of digestive diseases. 2) To promote and increase interaction and collaboration among investigators and clinicians interested in digestive diseases. 3) To foster the scientific and career development of DDC members. To achieve these aims, The DDC developed and implemented an Enrichment Program that has several elements : 1) the Research Seminar Series; 2) the Annual DDC Symposium; 3) the Annual DDC Scientific Retreat; 4) DDC Core Research Workshops; 5) DDC Research Focus Group Workshops; and 6) Career Development Initiative. Institutional and endowed support over the last funding period ($35,000) sponsored complementary research symposia and lectures within the GI Sections in the three DDC institutions targeting the research interests of DDC members. To catalyze member scientific development and interactions, the TMC DDC Research Seminar Series was initiated in 1998. This weekly series is a vehicle for prominent local, national, and international investigators to present lectures related to topics within the DDC Research Domains. We started in 2009 an annual scientific symposium that is organized as a half-day monothematic symposium focusing on topical and cutting-edge topics, and starting in 2015 became CME accredited. The Directors and/or Co-Directors of the DDC 4 research Cores hold several DDC Core Research Workshops that deal with educational and technical issues of new technologies or Core activities. We have created several DDC GI Focus Groups including a Microbiome Analysis Research Group, Liver Biology and Cancer Consortium Research Group and the Junior Investigators Group, in which junior investigators meet twice monthly to discuss diverse GI research interests in both basic and clinical sciences. The annual DDC retreat format is designed to disseminate research findings of our members and includes a poster session, which provides robust interactions among senior investigators, junior faculty, and trainees. Awards to the best posters are presented during the annual retreat. The DDC Career Development Initiative sponsors several activities including preparedness for PF awards, dissemination of grant and career development information to PF awardees, trainees and junior faculty, lunches with visiting speakers, and Digestive Disease Week (DDW) Rehearsal. 1