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Dr. Alphonso Brown is a practicing gastroenterologist and clinical researcher with formal training in gastroenterology epidemiology and clinical research methodology. He is currently assistant professor of medicine in the division of gastroenterolgoy, department of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and is also co-director of the Pancreas Center at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Dr. Brown's recent interests have been in the diagnosis and treatment of acute pancreatitis, chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. His initial interest in research began while he was a fellow in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Scholars program. During his Howard Hughes research year, Dr. Brown worked at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, in the hematology and molecular biology lab under the direction of Dr. Griffin Rodgers. Dr. Brown's project involved the development of DNA triple helices in order to perform site specific gene product manipulation. These techniques were being developed as a potential treatment for sickle cell anemia. Dr. Brown's work at the NIH served as his honors thesis during his graduation from Harvard Medical School, where he received his MD. He also received a prize for best student presentation from the American Academy of Sciences for this work.

Over the last nine years, Dr. Brown has conducted research in the areas of acute and chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. Dr. Brown's early work established the relationship between hemoconcentration and severe outcome in acute pancreatitis. The conclusions of his early papers in this area have widely been adapted into clinical practice.

During his gastroenterology fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Brown obtained a masters degree in clinical epidemiology. He subsequently obtained funding to study pancreatic cancer as a Robert Johnson Amos Scholars grant recipient.

Dr. Brown continues to specialize in the treatment of patients with complicated disease of the pancreas. He continues to conduct research and see patients in a pancreas specific subspecialty clinic.

Dr. Brown graduated cum laude with his MD from Harvard Medical School, and received his MS in clinical epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed an internship and residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and went on to complete a gastroenterology fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania.