A/Prof Jakob Begun MD PhD is the Director of Gastroenterology at the Mater Hospital Brisbane and IBD Group leader at the Mater Research Institute – University of Queensland. He oversees a busy gastroenterology department and runs a basic and translational laboratory investigating the intersection of innate immune function, genetics, and the microbiome. He is the chair of the Australia New Zealand IBD Consortium and a founding member of the Gastrointestinal Intestinal Ultrasound Network.