Meet the jury lecture: ‘Personalized therapy in Inflammatory Bowel Disease’ by prof. Raja Atreya

DATE & TIME: 27 June 2023, 14h30-15h30
VENUE: BMW 4, O&N 2, Campus Gasthuisberg

About the lecture

Biologics have significantly transformed the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), providing symptom control, endoscopic remission, and mucosal healing. However, a significant subset of patients doesn’t respond to these treatments, which may also cause severe systemic side-effects. Therefore, there is a growing need to establish predictive markers of response to these drugs. Multiple fields of IBD research are contributing to the discovery of such markers, covering a wide range of disease-related, clinical, biochemical, and pharmacokinetic factors, in addition to parameters from blood, stool, pharmacogenomics, microbiota, metabolism, and mucosal factors. Immune cell alterations in the intestine under the pressure of biologic treatment may induce molecular drug resistance. Certain key factors like IL-23 have been identified as contributing to this resistance. As our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of biologics increases, we might uncover markers predicting therapeutic efficacy. This presentation discusses potential predictive markers and molecular resistance pathways, stressing the need to develop and validate diagnostic markers for personalized therapies.

About the speaker

Prof. Raja Atreya is Head of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Unit and Clinical Study Centre of the University Hospital Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. He is also Heisenberg Professor of Translational Immunology in IBD. ​

REGISTER HERE: https://forms.gle/zMnFHvQ4PJhNHarp7

CONTACT: Saeed Abdurahiman (saeed<dot>abdurahiman<at>kuleuven<dot>be)