Many genetic factors have been associated with increased IBD susceptibility. However, these only explain a fraction of the disease risk that an individual with such a predisposition experiences. Environmental factors have been proposed to work in combination with host genetics to cause IBD. Diet and the normally beneficial community of bacteria that live in the […]

The human gut is home to trillions of bacteria affecting our health. Even more abundant are viruses that specifically infect these bacteria. These viruses are called bacteriophages and have the ability to control the number and function of the bacteria that live within us. Individuals with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), such as Crohn’s disease or […]

Gastrointestinal (GI) health is essential for overall body health. Inflammatory insults to the GI mucosa often cause profound and irreversible changes of GI homeostasis, including disrupted enteric neural regulation and subsequent alteration of GI function. Mucosal inflammation causes irreversible structural changes of the enteric nervous system (ENS), demonstrating a strong linkage between inflammation and GI […]

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is less common in parts of the world with parasitic worm infections than in the developed world. Understanding why may lead to new types of therapy. We recently found that infection by parasitic worms increases the number of beneficial anti-inflammatory Clostridiales bacteria in the intestine, and that these bacteria can outcompete […]

So far, most research on the microbiome in IBD has mostly focused on gut bacteria. However, there is increasing evidence to support that other members of the microbiome, such as viruses, may also have an important role. Herein we plan to study the role of viral exposures in IBD development. A major challenge of this […]