In July 2018, Dr. Merchant is chief of the Division of Gastroenterology/Hepatology within the Department of Medicine at the University of Arizona and also holds the title of Regents Professor. She holds a joint appointment in the Department of Physiological Sciences and is Associate Director for Basic Research at the UA Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Merchant is a molecular gastroenterologist whose primary research interests include transcriptional control mechanisms regulating cell growth and differentiation and microbial-host interactions in the gastrointestinal tract. She has published over 160 research publications and is the editor or co-editor of four books and multiple book chapters. She is currently an associate editor for FASEB J, Cellular and Molecular Gastroenterology, Nature Reviews Gastroenterology/Hepatology and Annual Review of Physiology. She has remained continuously funded by NIH for 30 years. She has received several mentoring awards and serves as an external advisor for Digestive Disease Centers for Vanderbilt and Columbia Universities. She was chair of the Program Steering Committee for the SDSU-UC San Diego NCI-funded U54 Cooperative Cancer Grant for 8 years and an active committee member for 20 years. She is a prior member of the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) Advisory Council and the Council of Councils. She is the prior chair of the Gastrointestinal Cell and Molecular Biology NIH study section (2005) and is past chair of the NIDDK Board of Scientific Councilors (BSC, 2016-2021). She was also a member of the 2020 NIDDK Blue Ribbon Panel (2020-2021). She is a member of several professional associations, including the Association of American Physicians (AAP) and the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI). She was inducted into the National Academy of Medicine in 2008 and in 2017 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She currently serves as an elected member of AAP and National Academy of Medicine Councils. She was recently named to the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research Scientific Advisory Council. And was recently named to the Scientific Advisory Board for Yale School of Medicine.