Using high-throughout genetic and genomic screens to understand the biological basis of inflammatory bowel disease and deliver precision medicine


In person only

Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are the two most common forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). They are complex diseases characterised by severe gastrointestinal inflammation. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified hundreds of genetic loci associated with these disease. In this seminar I will present results from the latest GWAS and whole-exome sequencing studies of IBD, which have together identified hundreds of new susceptibility loci. I will also show how we have used single-cell RNA sequencing data from hundreds of samples to robustly identify genes differentially expressed between cases and controls, identify disease-relevant cell-types, map eQTLs at single cell-type resolution and nominate likely disease effector genes in a high-throughput manner. I will finish by describing two large longitudinal multiomic studies we are undertaking to identify biomarkers of drug response and disease progression.