Inflammatory Bowel Disease CHARACTERization

IBD-CHARACTER is a a collaborative effort to advance understanding of the inflammatory bowel diseases Ulcerative Colitis andCrohn's Disease and to increase diagnostic precision in detection of the diseases in their early manifestation. We will utilizethe largest collection of samples so far assembled of treatment naïve patients recently diagnosed with inflammatory boweldisease, a total of 400 patients. The material will be extensively analyzed for DNA methylation status, RNA transcriptionprofile, protein markers and gut microbial content in order to create a molecular snapshot of IBD in its early manifestation.

As control group, material from a total of 200 recently by endoscopy diagnosed non-inflammatory but symptomatic patients(symptomatic non-IBD) as well as 200 healthy, age-matched, non-smoking, controls without any known first relativesdiagnosed with IBD, will be collected and used. All patients will be diagnosed according to standardized diagnostic criteria’s,characterized using current known clinical markers as well as genotyped for known susceptibility loci. This large, wellcharacterized cohort in conjunction with our proposed massive molecular profiling will yield a list of biomarkers indicative foronset of the disease.

Based on the finding within the project assays capable of analyzing panels of relevant protein markers and methods for rapid profiling of gut microbial content relevant for IBD will be developed by participating SME:s, offering large commercial potential. The proposed biomarkers will form a solid ground for development of improved diagnostic assays and be a rich source to mine for novel therapeutic targets.

 

More information

IBD-CHARACTER website

Coordinator: 
Jack Satsangi