Principal Investigator: Keith C. Summa, MD, PhD, Instructor of Medicine (Gastroenterology and Hepatology), Northwestern Medicine, Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine A chronic autoimmune condition affecting over 1.6 million people in the U.S., inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) causes ongoing pain, infection, and debilitating symptoms for many people around the world. An umbrella term encompassing Crohn’s Disease, ulcerative colitis, and unspecified colitis, IBD is a growing global public health problem with more than 70,000 new cases, many in children, diagnosed each year in the U.S. Intestinal inflammation occurs in combination with sleep problems, fatigue, and circadian rhythm disturbances in patients with IBD. In fact, studies have found increased alternations in the circadian clock system of IBD sufferers. Yet the exact molecular mechanisms linking sleep to IBD remain unclear. This year’s grant from DHF funds a study led by Dr. Keith Summa to take a deep dive into the ways sleep and circadian rhythms influence gut health. His team will study, in a mice model of colitis, if and how sleep and circadian disruptions trigger gut microbial changes and activate signaling pathways to accelerate damaging inflammation. The researchers hope this novel scientific avenue yields better insight into the underlying causes of IBD, leading to more effective therapeutic strategies to improve patients’ quality of...
Principal Investigator: Fred W. Turek, PhD, Charles and Emma Morrison Professor, Northwestern Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences Experiments in animal models of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) have shown that disruption of sleep and circadian rhythms increases susceptibility to intestinal inflammation. In addition, studies in patients with IBD have found alterations in the circadian clock that may indicate pervasive sleep problems. Despite these connections, little is known about how sleep and circadian rhythms are involved in gut health, or if strategies to promote sleep and reduce stress can mitigate the risk for intestinal inflammation. Alterations in the intestinal bacteria (microbiome) and abnormal host responses to these bacteria may be contributing factors to the development of IBD. Recent studies have revealed links between the microbiome, circadian rhythms, and the sleep-wake cycle. In previous work, Dr. Turek’s team found that a probiotic promoted resilience to sleep restriction and acute stress exposure. In this project, the investigators are determining if a probiotic can also protect against intestinal inflammation and pathology in a mouse model of colitis. The potential for probiotics to improve sleep and decrease disease activity is an exciting avenue of study that may provide low risk options to improve the daily lives of IBD...
Principal Investigator: Ronen Sumagin, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pathology (Experimental Pathology), Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine When conventional medications, such as corticosteroids or 5-aminosalicylates, fail to work in IBD patients, biologics that block a critical inflammatory molecule called tumor-necrosis-factor alpha (TNFα) are commonly prescribed. However, one third of patients receive no relief from these biologic drugs, and other patients become resistant to the therapy over time, forcing physicians to pursue other avenues of treatment for their patients. In previous work, the Sumagin lab and other researchers established the important role of immune cells, called neutrophils, in IBD. Recent studies revealed that in inflamed tissue there are diverse neutrophil populations with distinct functions. With the DHF grant, Dr. Sumagin is using innovative single-cell sequencing to map neutrophil diversity in IBD. His research team seeks to determine whether specific neutrophil subtype(s) dictate resistance to anti-TNFα therapy. This effort offers great promise for unraveling new disease processes and identifying predictive biomarkers of treatment outcomes or drug targets to prevent anti-TNFα resistance in IBD patients. Physicians could then predict ahead of time which drugs may work for their patients living with IBD. This valuable insight could potentially decrease symptom or disease flares, as a result of drug inefficacy or resistance, in the long-term treatment of...
Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Northwestern Medicine/Feinberg School of Medicine Center for Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics in Gastroenterology The Center for Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics in Gastroenterology (AIM-GI) is a first of its kind program developed in a division of Gastroenterology. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have the potential to vastly improve our ability to accurately predict, diagnose and treat our patients living with digestive diseases. Through collaboration with engineers at the McCormick School of Engineering and physician scientists at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, our team has been incorporating mathematical modeling and advanced programming to study the mechanisms that lead to poor gastrointestinal function. This work led to the development of a more formalized center that focuses on three main initiatives. Development of virtual organs which can be used to study the effects of surgery and medications; Development of new hybrid diagnostic tools using AI and machine learning to enhance diagnosis; Using machine learning and neutral networks to predict disease outcome. Although this is a new program, we have already had success developing an NIH funded Center of Research Expertise (CORE) and we have also developed new AI prototypes that can improve diagnostic accuracy and reliability of motility tests. This work is supported by the generosity of the Digestive Health Foundation and these funds help provide the computational power and expertise required to continue to develop these innovative tools. Our goal is to continue invent and develop new approaches and our partnership with the Digestive Disease Foundation will continue to allow us to grow and evolve this...
Principal Investigator: Jonah J. Stulberg, MD, PhD, MPH | Salva Balbale, PhD The national opioid crisis continues to adversely affect millions of lives, including a growing number of individuals with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Studies have suggested that long-term opioid use among IBD patients can result in serious detrimental effects on GI function. Opioid use disorders in this population have also been linked to longer hospital stays, increasing health care costs, and deaths. Yet a comprehensive understanding of the opioid usage and pain management needs of these patients remains elusive. Additionally, no published studies have explored the decision-making process that IBD providers use when prescribing opioids. Dr. Stulberg’s study will lay the groundwork for developing best practices to optimize the use of opioids for IBD patients. The researchers will conduct interviews with IBD providers, in addition to focus groups with IBD patients to ensure all voices are heard and incorporated in future opioid safety efforts to enhance the care and pain management for patients with inflammatory bowel disease. (Dr. Stulberg led a previous DHF-funded study in 2017 that tracked and greatly reduced opioid prescriptions and risk of misuse in GI surgery...
