Taking IBD Genes from GWAS to Function to Drug Target

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), mainly represented by Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, affects ~1/300 people in Western societies and is increasing all over the world. The risk to develop IBD varies between individuals and is in part determined by genetics. Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS) have revealed specific risk loci in our genome and indicated many candidate causative genes for IBD. Moreover, they have potential to reveal hitherto uncharted functional territories and therapeutic targets. However, pinpointing the causative genes remains to be done for >95% of risk loci and requires post-GWAS studies that combine genomic and functional approaches. A major problem is that for most genomicists, identifying the candidaterisk genes is the end of the road as further prioritization requires expertise in the cellular, molecular and immunological changes that cause disease, and specialized techniques and models for their evaluation. The aim of the BRIDGE project is to assemble a team of top-notch Belgian laboratories with complementary expertise in genomics, immunology and cell biology to jointly develop a pipeline to systematically interrogate IBD-relevant functions of GWAS-identified candidate genes in order to select promising new therapeutic drug targets.