Distinguished scientist: Peter Mannon, MD

This profile is part of a series to highlight the researchers who will be honored at a ceremony on Feb. 24 for UNMC's 2021 Scientist Laureate, Distinguished Scientist, New Investigator and Community Service to Research Award recipients.

• Name: Peter Mannon, MD 
• Titles: Professor of medicine; chief, UNMC Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology ; director, Frederic F. Paustian Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center; Ruth and Bill Scott Endowed Presidential Chair of Internal Medicine 
• Joined UNMC: February 2020 
• Hometown:  Massapequa Park, New York 11762 

Research focus: Inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis)

Why is research important in the world today? Research is the only way to create the knowledge that fills the gaps to allow us to progress in our mission to improve life on Earth. 

My research will make a difference because: My work is patient-centered and uses clinical models to test questions whose answers can be directly applied to medical practice. The interactions of the human immune system with the environment is a universal model for factors that are important to underwriting health and driving disease. 

The best advice I’ve ever received is: 

• “You pay peanuts, you get monkeys.” 
• “If it wasn’t documented, it never happened.” 
• “If you find yourself in a position where a small effort on your part can result in an outsized benefit for another person, then only a detestable person would ignore that opportunity to help.” 

Three things you may not know about me are: 

• I was a freshman coxswain in an eight-man boat in college. 
• I studied Virgil’s “Eclogues” at Trinity College in Dublin the year before attending medical school.
• I always have a goodly supply of stone ground grits in my freezer at the ready.