Grant: Project Grant

In the past decades, an increased understanding of the biological causes of the inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) has driven drug development positively forward. Prime examples of this have been the therapies (e.g. Remicade, Humira, etc.) developed against the "TNF" molecule. It is clear now that treating the causes, rather than the symptoms of disease, provides a better way forward to heal patients. Importantly, our ollaborative international genetic studies have identified 200 areas of the human genome that are involved in causing IBD. We have used state-of-the-art genetic and genomic techniques to identify the genes within these regions, as well as the common and rare changes in the DNA sequence of these genes, that most likely cause IBD. Recently, we have identified a mutated gene that controls intestinal permeability and that leads to the leaky gut observed in IBD. The proposed project aims to find additional IBD genes and mutations that lead to a leaky gut providing for the opportunity to develop targeted therapies to re-establish intestinal integrity.