Melissa Weidner, MD

Dr. Weidner is a pediatric gastroenterologist with a strong interest in how environmental factors impact children’s health and disease, particularly the microbiome (the bacteria and other organisms that live within our bodies). In collaboration with other Rutgers researchers, Dr. Weidner is a member of the Executive Committee for the New Jersey Kids Study (NJKS), a state-wide study, actively enrolling pregnant women and their babies to explore the early life microbiome in relation to pediatric health outcomes. This study is collecting data and biospecimens on women and their babies with the hope of better understanding environmental factors driving increases in many conditions affecting children including asthma, autism and obesity.

Dr. Weidner cares for children with a variety of gastrointestinal conditions but has increasingly become fascinated with Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE), a chronic condition affecting the esophagus which involves allergic inflammation. EoE affects children and adults and has been increasing dramatically over the past few decades. Research has shown a strong environmental contribution to disease development, although particular environmental factors, including the microbiome, and how these factors may impact EoE are not well-understood at this time.  

Dr. Weidner is the Medical Director of Pediatric Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Diseases through RWJBarnabas and leads the Pediatric EoE Multidisciplinary Clinic which includes Pediatric Gastroenterology (Dr. Weidner), Pediatric Allergy/Immunology (Dr. Barrie Cohen) and Pediatric Dietitian (Melanie Lee, RD).  The clinic is also supported by feeding therapy and behavioral therapy at RWJBarnabas. The Pediatric EoE Multidisciplinary Clinic, is the only multidisciplinary clinic in New Jersey that serves children and families with EoE. We provide state-of-the-art clinical care including access to novel, lesser invasive procedures such as Esophageal String Test ® and unsedated transnasal endoscopy.  
 

A.    Undergraduate: 
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, NJ
Bachelors of Science with High Honors        
Biology Major, Psychology Minor            2006

B.    Graduate and Professional:
Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Piscataway/Camden, NJ
Medical Doctor                    2010

POSTGRADUATE TRAINING:
A.    Internship and Residency:

duPont Hospital for Children/Jefferson Medical College
Wilmington, DE/Philadelphia, PA    
Pediatrics        
June 2010-June 2013

B.    Research Fellowship:

Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD
Pediatric Gastroenterology
July 2013-June 2016        
 

Dr. Weidner is a pediatric gastroenterologist with a strong interest in how environmental factors impact children’s health and disease, particularly the microbiome. Dr. Weidner has become increasingly fascinated with Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE), a chronic condition affecting the esophagus which involves allergic inflammation. EoE affects children and adults, has been increasing dramatically over the past few decades, and has a strong environmental contribution to disease development.  Dr. Weidner is interested in the relationship between environmental factors including the microbiome and EoE disease development. 

1.    Sun H, Dulencin A, Vo J, Kim T, Liachko I, Rao D, Manzo-Santana J, Patel E, Looi C, Horton DB, Barrett E, Weidner M, Bachmann G, Panettieri R, Rogova M, Nagy-Szakal D, Couto-Rodiguez M, Kotwal S, Wu Q, Simon J, Blaser M, Connor B, Dominguez Bello MG. 
Autologous fecal microbiota transplantation restores the infant gut microbiota and metabolome after antibiotics: a case report. mBio. Accepted April 2026.

2.    Weidner M.  Updates in Pediatric Eosinophilic Esophagitis. New Jersey Pediatrics Journal. Spring 2026.

3.    Weidner M, Azam N, Gobburu A, Jansen M, Rivera-Nunez Z, Parmar V, Bachman G, Reilly N, Panettieri R, Dominguez-Bello MG, Horton D, Blaser M, Barrett E, Rokicki S. Factors influencing biospecimen collection in decentralized pregnancy and birth cohorts: A qualitative study. J Clin Transl Sci. 2025. DOI: 10.1017/cts.2025.10099

4.    Alsoud D, Noor NM, Chen LA, Abadom V, Anderson S, Ardolli L, Axelrad J, Bossuyt P, Croitoru K, Damas O, Deng L, Deepak P, De La Revilla Negro J, de Silva S, Ferrante M, Hills K, Irving P, Lindsay J, Lukin D, Lyons P, McKinney E, Oliva-Hemker M, Oneto C, Patel R, Parkes M, Pouillon L, Sabino J, Saubermann L, Sauk J, Sheibani S, Smith K, Sultan K, Tham T, Verstockt S, Vrabie R, Weidner M, Yu H, Verstockt B, Lee J, Vermeire S. Assessment of PredictSURE IBD Assay in a Multinational Cohort of Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Disease. United European Gastroenterol J. 2025 Jul 11. doi: 10.1002/ueg2.70050. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40641434.

5.    Kokinakos K, Botwinick M, Weidner M, Drachtman R. Pernicious Anemia in a Pediatric Patient With Autoimmune Polyendocrinopathy-Candidiasis-Ectodermal Dystrophy. JCEM Case Rep. 2025 May 2;3(6):luaf090. doi: 10.1210/jcemcr/luaf090. PMID: 40322634; PMCID: PMC12046220.

6.    Rokicki S, Gobburu A, Weidner M, Azam N, Jansen M, Rivera-Núñez Z, De Resende A, Parmar V, Bachmann G, Reilly N, Panettieri R, Dominguez-Bello MG, Horton DB, Blaser MJ, Barrett ES. Barriers and strategies for recruitment of pregnant women in contemporary longitudinal birth cohort studies. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2025 Apr 28;25(1):117. doi: 10.1186/s12874-025-02570-w. PMID: 40295914; PMCID: PMC12036123.

7.    Gigliotti R*, Weidner M*, Jansen M, Greenberg P, Bachmann G, Dominguez-Bello MG, Parmar V, Panettieri Jr. R, Reilly N, Ayers C, Cohen B, Denzin L, Feldman-Zohn C, Fiedler N, Jimenez M, Laumbach R, Malin S, Mazzaferro , Shilpa Pai S, Rosen T, Rossman-Murphy L, Salvatore J, Schmitz K, Shapses S, Shiau S, Zarbl H, Reichman N, Barrett E, Blaser M, Horton D. Assessments of working group effectiveness in the planning of the New Jersey Kids Study: An applied mixed-methods study on the science of team science. J Clin Transl Sci. 2024 Oct 14;8(1):e163. doi: 10.1017/cts.2024.578. PMID: 39619065; PMCID: PMC11604504.  * Co-first author

8.    Madej J, Atanassova T, McGuire S, Cohen B, Weidner M, Zhang Y, Horton, D. Acid-suppressive medication and incidence of chronic childhood immune-mediated diseases: A scoping review. Pediatric Allergy and Immunology. November 2023. https://doi.org/10.1111/pai.14042

9.    Fenneman AC, Weidner M, Chen LA, Nieuwdorp M, Blaser MJ. Antibiotics in the pathogenesis of diabetes and inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2022 Oct 18.

10.    Maheshwari A, He Z, Weidner MN, Lin P, Bober R, Del Rosario FJ. Influence of Age and Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus on Serological Test for Celiac Disease in Children. Pediatr Gastroenterol Hepatol Nutr. 2021 Mar;24(2):218-229. 
 

Identity and Leadership (I-LEAD) Program- Applied and accepted
Rutgers University
3/2024-5/2024

Nominated and selected to attend the America Pediatric Society and Society for Pediatric Research Journeys and Frontiers in Pediatric Research Seminar Series
2/2021- 6/2021

Alpha Omega Alpha Member
4/2020- Present

New Jersey’s Favorite Kid’s Doctors
New Jersey Family Magazine
2019

Young Investigator’s Travel Grant
World Congress of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition
Montreal, Canada 
2016

NIH T32 Research Grant Recipient
Johns Hopkins Hospital
2014-2016