Grant: Doctoral: Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a category of chronic, incurable illnesses that affect over 270,000 Canadians. People with IBD suffer from nausea, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and bloody stool throughout their life. Among the many ways IBD can affect a person's quality of life, diet is always a concern. Doctors have limited evidence to suggest one diet over another, and the consensus among people with IBD is that the best diet is "different for everyone". A healthy person's intestines harbour a community of trillions of beneficial bacteria. However, people with IBD often have fewer beneficial bacteria that produce butyrate - a molecule that helps to keep our gut healthy. Beneficial bacteria produce butyrate by fermenting dietary fibres that we cannot digest. One type of fibre is resistant starch - a natural component of starchy foods. Unfortunately, restoring one's gut health is not as simple as eating starch. Everyone's gut bacteria community is as unique as their fingerprint, and the bacteria they harbour are able to digest some starches but not others. My goal is to determine which type of resistant starch someone ought to eat prior to actually eating it. We will collect stool from children recently diagnosed with IBD and feed their gut bacteria with nine different powdered resistant starches. We will determine if these resistant starches restore their gut bacterial balance and butyrate levels. We predict that children will respond to one resistant starch better than others. They will be prescribed this "optimal" resistant starch (or regular starch placebo) along with standard IBD medications for 6 months. We will monitor their gut bacteria, butyrate levels, and disease activity for an additional 6 months to determine if the therapy is effective. Our plan capitalizes on diet being "different for everyone" with IBD, and could potentially lead to a revolutionary, safe, economical, and personalized therapy for IBD based entirely on a common food ingredient.