Future Crohn’s Disease Research |
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Knowledge of Crohn’s disease has grown tremendously since Dr. Crohn and his associates first published their report in 1932. That hasn’t stopped today’s researchers from continuing to find out as much as they can.
Millions of dollars are given each year to help find a cure and/or better treatments for Crohn’s disease. Hospitals as small as the Medical College of Wisconsin and as large as The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine are working to discover ways to make life easier for Crohn’s patients. Studies that are in the pipeline right now include:
- At the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA, Dr. Ronald DePinho is working in conjunction with the Florida Chapter Research Alliance to examine the role of telomere dysfunction in regards to Crohn’s disease and the risk of colorectal cancer.
- Elsewhere in Massachusetts, the MIT Center for Genome Research Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT in Cambridge’s Dr. John D. Rioux is working with the Gateway Chapter Research Alliance to try to understand IBD using a biological pathway approach.
- Fairfield/Westchester Chapter Research Alliance and Southwest Ohio Chapter Research Alliance have allotted Dr. Cosmas Giallourakis from the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA, the required funds to identify the IBD gene on chromosome 19P using a comprehensive haplotype approach.
- Dr. Manisha Harpavat at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, PA, is concerned about the altered bone mineral metabolism in children with IBD, and with the help of the Nat Conti Research Award is working to determine what affect this has.
- In Chicago, IL, at the University of Chicago, Dr. Jerrold Turner, with the help of the Illinois Carol Fisher Chapter Research Alliance, is looking at the barrier dysfunction in Crohn’s disease and how a myosin light chain phosophorylation might work as a mediator and therapeutic target.
- At the University of California at San Francisco in San Francisco, CA, Dr. Uma Mahadevan and the Northern California Chapter Research Alliance are interested in the outcomes of pregnancies in women with IBD.
- The factors that control the differentiation of regulatory T cells and their effect on intestinal inflammation is being studied by Dr. Makoto Naganuma at the University of Virginia/Digestive Health Center out of Charlottesville, VA, with the help of the Ellen Crown Profile in Courage Award.
Students Helping, Too
Through the Solvay Pharmaceuticals Student Research Fellowship Awards, medical students and fledgling scientists are also looking into various aspects of Crohn’s disease and IBD. Some of the students and their mentors are listed below, along with what they’re looking into:
- Gauree Gupta, under the direction of Dr. James Lewis, is looking for an association between IBD and multiple sclerosis at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
- Shivani Jain, under the direction of Dr. Terrence Barrett, is hoping to find a way to prevent cancer in IBD through the use of anti-TNF medications at Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago, IL.
- John Joseph Karijolich, under the direction of Drs. Nita Salzman and Subra Kugathasan, is working on characterizing the bacterial flora in gastrointestinal health and disease at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, WI.
These are just a small portion of the studies that are going on regarding Crohn’s disease and IBD. A larger compilation can be found at The Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America at www.ccfa.org.
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