How our research benefits to society
Chronic immune-mediated and autoimmune diseases affect about 5% of the population in Europe and North America, with two thirds of the patients being female. The increase in immune-mediated diseases accounts for a large part the complex immune-mediated diseases affecting the gastrointestinal tract:
- celiac disease,
- Crohn’s disease,
- ulcerative colitis.
Translate genetic findings into clinical use
Recent advances in genetic studies reveal a vast majority of the underlying genetic risk factors and unequivocally show that gastrointestinal immune-mediated disease share part of their genetic and immunological background with diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, type 1 diabetes, and multiple sclerosis. The challenge we are currently facing is to translate these genetic findings into clinical use.
Our findings will lead to:
- Biomarkers to identify patients before disease onset or to monitor disease progression and remission;
- New drug targets or evidence for repurposing existing drugs to other disease;
- Insight into how the gut microbiome can be modified through pre/ pro or anti-biotics to treat or prevent disease.