The goal of CEGIIR is to better understand the causes and pathophysiology of autoimmune hepatogastric diseases and to carry out bench-to-bedside research to translate basic scientific findings into improved therapies for patients. Gastrointestinal inflammatory disorders are multidimensional and complex in nature. Metagenomic, metabolomic, and microarray analyses are being used to examine the role of microbes and viruses in gastrointestinal disease; determine how to manipulate microbes to improve health; and to identify microbial and host biomarkers that could be used as predictors of response or disease monitoring.
Our researchers focus on the impact of a patient’s genetics, immune dysregulation, lifestyle (BMI, diet/nutrition), behaviour (smoking) and environmental exposures (pollutions, toxins) on their microbiome in relation to disease. The goal is to better understand how these interactions lead to inflammatory diseases and to identify and develop biomarkers, novel therapeutics, companion diagnostics, and monitoring/screening tools to iimprove patient care.
CEGIIR research is dovetailed into patient care and clinical research. All patients are given the opportunity to directly participate in research through our clinical trials research centre (GILDR) or to provide samples and phenotypic information for our established biobank. Patients also benefit directly through our evidence-based critical care pathways for inflammatory bowel disease, access to specialized clinics, companion diagnostics, and novel therapies. From childhood through to geriatrics, our patients are seamlessly integrated into our research yielding a continuum of quality biospecimens and enthusiastic research participants, thereby yielding excellence in inflammatory hepatogastric research.
www.cegiir.med.ualberta.ca