Lay Summary

Proposal No. IBD-0309
Principal Investigator:  Ramesh P. Arasaradnam, MB BCh, Ph.D.
Applicant Organization:  University Hospital Coventry & Warwick, University of Warwick (England)
Project Title:  Real-time identification and monitoring of inflammatory bowel disease through the bio-odorant signature of colonic fermentation (fermentonomics)
Period of Award:  December 1, 2010 - November 30, 2012

There is an ever increasing proportion of society that suffers from IBD, especially within the western world. Thus, there is a strong requirement to find new methods and tools that aid clinicians to rapidly diagnosis IBD and monitor the effectiveness of treatments. Such methods should also employ techniques that are not financially restrictive allowing the rapid deployment within hospitals, GPs, and nurse visits. We believe this could reduce the severity of IBD and the stress and discomfort suffered by patients, but also reduce recovery times through monitoring of the effectiveness of a treatment.

At present, there are only limited early diagnostic tools available to aid clinicians. Lab-based techniques rely on culture growth and endoscopy to provide some insight into the disease, but both methods require specialized equipment and trained staff, which create a delay to the start of treatment, and are far from 100% effective. Thus, we believe there needs to be a new approach to IBD identification and monitoring that will result in a paradigm shift in current medical practices to fulfill the needs of IBD sufferers. Thus, the vision of our group is to develop new methods and tools that could aid in making this change a reality. It is envisaged that such a rapid diagnosis will result in a considerable reduction in patient distress particularly with the early institution of appropriate treatment.