Grant: Team Grant: Canadian Microbiome Initiative 2: Research Teams - IHDCYH Pool

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are chronic conditions that damage a person's intestines and cause lifelong pain. IBD is becoming more common in Canada, especially in children. Current treatments (drugs) suppress patient's immune systems and don't work all the time; even when they work they carry substantial risks. Therefore, we need to develop new treatments. While studying some of our patients, our Team of doctors and scientists has found several types of unusual bacteria in their intestines. These bacteria are able to attach to - or invade the cells lining the human gut, and trigger inflammation. These bacteria are also recognized by the patient's immune cells, suggesting these "pathobiont" bacteria are involved in either causing IBD, or making it worse, and thus removing these nasty bacteria could be a new treatment for IBD. Our Team is part of a national Network studying IBD in more than 1500 Canadian children. We plan to use the existing Network infrastructure to collect samples from these patients, including stool samples, intestinal washing, and tissues. We will use specialized techniques to identify potential "pathobionts" and grow them up in large numbers, allowing us to study them in great detail. We will test how they stick or invade human cells grown in the lab, as well as inject them into mice to see how they cause disease. As we gain a better understanding of how different "pathobiont" bacteria cause disease, we will develop new ways to target these bacteria and test these approaches in the lab, in mouse models, and ultimately in the patients themselves. For example, we will test if certain diets can starve these bacteria, if there are specific good bacteria we can give to patients in their food that can outcompete the pathobionts, or if we can use new drugs to kill, or flush away these harmful bacteria. Taken together, our studies will help develop new precise and personalized ways to treat children with IBD, and ultimately improve their lives.