Raja Atreya is Head of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Unit and Clinical Study Centre of the University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. He is also Heisenberg Professor of Translational Immunology in IBD. Raja has received his MD from the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany. He then went on to work as a physician at the University Hospital Mainz and subsequently participated in the postgraduate program on antigen-specific immunotherapy. In 2010, he was appointed as Professor for IBD at the University Hospital Erlangen, and was appointed to his current post in 2016. His research interest lies in the characterization of the molecular mechanism of action IBD therapies and the identification of individual response predictors (e.g. molecular endoscopy), as well as resistance mechanisms to biological therapies. He has been involved as Coordinating Investigator in multicenter clinical IBD trials. Raja has been a recipient of the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize for Young Researchers from the Paul Ehrlich Foundation, the Theodor Frerichs Award from the German Society for Internal Medicine; the Rising Star Award from the United European Gastroenterology Federation, and the International Award of the American College of Gastroenterology.