For over 30 years, Crohn’s & Colitis UK has been at the forefront of ground breaking research on Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis, the two main forms of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).
In 2015, the charity has been able to grant more money to medical research than in previous years to projects that offer value to people living with IBD, value for money and originality. This year, in an exciting partnership, two of the projects have been fully funded with £70,000 by the charity forCrohn's whose mission is to fund research that helps those with the condition today and contributes to finding a cure for Crohn’s Disease in the future whilst making more people in the UK aware of the disease and its symptoms.
The following research projects have had funding committed by Crohn’s & Colitis UK for 2015:
The University of East Anglia will receive £119,018 to study the role of bacteria in IBD, with the aim of developing a new super protective probiotic which will help control inflammation in IBD patients.
At the end of this project we shall be in a position to generate a ‘super-protective’ strain of Bifobacteria and prepare it for test in patients with IBD.
Dr Lindsay Hall
The University of Oxford will receive £115,500 to look for a new way of classifying IBD related bowel cancer, in the hope that it will help doctors chose the best treatment option for IBD patients who develop bowel cancer.
..too little is known about the molecular pathways that drive cancer formation in IBD..
Dr Simon Leedham
Kings College London will receive £114,689 to explore a special type of white blood cell called ‘Tregs’ in the hope that it will lead to a new form of cell therapy treatment for IBD.
Cell therapy is an exciting novel therapy for inflammatory bowel diseases.
Dr Nick Powell
The University of Liverpool will receive £60,615 (funded by the charity for Crohn's) to investigate the relationship between bacteria and fungi in the gut, and whether fungi plays a role in causing Crohn's. It may even lead to new treatments which suppress the fungi.
The results of this programme of work will be a greater understanding of the role of fungi in the cause of Crohn’s Disease.
Professor Chris Probert
The University of Oxford will receive £10,000 (funded by the charity for Crohn's) to look at the way in which the gut handles bacteria, and whether an abnormal way of dealing with bacteria leads to Crohn’s Disease – the researchers ultimately want to use the information to develop a new treatment for IBD patients.
The ultimate aim is to develop therapies for IBD patients that do not necessarily function as immunosuppressive but to target bacteria handling defects.
Dr Holm Uhlig
The University of Edinburgh will receive £9,926 to investigate the role of a gene called RPS6KA2 in order to help understand the causes of IBD, this may ultimately lead to the design of new IBD treatments.
Ultimately, identification of the genes involved in the disease should allow us to design new therapeutic targets in an effort to better control IBD.
Dr Elaine Nimmo
Currently the cause for Crohn’s and Colitis is unknown, so these investments into research are critical if we want to improve lives now and ultimately find a cure. We are delighted that we have been able to fund so many innovative projects that we hope will prove ground-breaking in learning more about possible causes and finding new treatments for over 300,000 people in the UK who currently have IBD.
Helen Terry
Director of Policy, Research & Public Affairs - Crohn’s & Colitis UK
