A/Prof John Nik Ding is a gastroenterologist at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne. He completed a PhD in therapeutic stratification of patients with inflammatory bowel disease at St Mark’s Hospital and Imperial College, London through the University of Melbourne. He is the Principal investigator of sponsored Clinical trials for IBD at St Vincent’s Hospital and the lead for the National Bowel Cancer Program. His research focuses on translational aspects of metabolic profiling and bioinformatics for the discovery of biomarkers along with quality aspects of colonoscopy particularly focusing on the barriers to ensuring quality in colonoscopic evaluation. He has completed a term on the European Crohn’s and Colitis committee in charge of research activities. He serves on the Scientific committee of the ANZ IBD Consortium. His other interests include the co-founding of the Young-GESA group to bring together younger gastroenterologists and their peers in a supportive environment for education and mentorship. He has written and co-edited a textbook on “Biomarkers in Inflammatory Bowel Disease” and numerous book chapters and journal manuscripts. He is active in research supervising MD students and PhDs and is the co-Chief investigator of the PROACTIVE trial along with bringing collaborative international studies such as SPARE/Biocycle to Australia.