Madison Winston
Pronouns: she/her
Research Mentor(s): Constantine Nolan
Co-Presenter:
Research Mentor School/College/Department: GI CTRL Research Lab / Medicine
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: Session 3 – 1:40pm – 2:30 pm
Room: League Ballroom
Authors: Madison Winston, Constantine Nolan
Presenter: 9
Abstract
Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is a chronic autoimmune gastrointestinal disease that manifests as an inflammatory response in the small intestine as Crohn’s Disease (CD) and the large intestine as Ulcerative Colitis (UC). IBD impacts bowel health which can be accompanied by extreme pain, chronic diarrhea, and hematochezia (blood in stool). IBD can even manifest extraintestinaly as skin conditions, joint inflammation, mouth ulcers, and many other health complications. CD and UC are typically managed through the use of biologics, a class of drugs that suppress the immune response in the GI tract. There are many different IBD medications doctors choose from, and patient responsiveness to these medications can vary wildly between individual patients. While one biologic may manage one patient’s symptoms almost completely, in a different patient it may not work at all or only work for a short period of time. The main goal of this study is to investigate the genetics, microbiome, and blood serum content across a variety of IBD patients to create a system through which doctors can prescribe the best medication to their specific IBD patients on the first try. To do so, patients are evaluated through the collection of clinical biomarkers (stool samples, colonic biopsies, and blood samples); their medical histories, genetics, microbiome, and blood samples are then compared with the historical efficacy of their IBD drug regiment. By comparing biological samples to drug efficacy, the study team is hopeful to create methods in which to predict biologic efficacy before drug administration to patients.
Biomedical Sciences, Interdisciplinary
