Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a growing problem that can affect anyone at any age and is bothpainful and debilitating. IBD refers to several related chronic illnesses where the digestive tract becomes swollen and inflamed, plus the patient’s gut tissue can be broken or damaged. Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis are the two main forms of IBD and currently, in the UK, almost one person in 250 suffers from these conditions. These illnesses can start in childhood and around a third of everyone diagnosed with IBD are children or young people.

Two years ago, Dr Matthias Zilbauer, lecturer at the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine and Honorary Consultant in the Department of Paediatrics, began to establish a research group in Cambridge to focus on the development of IBD in children and, specifically, the role of epigenetic changes in certain cell types at the onset of disease. Epigenetics is the process by which genes are ‘switched on’ or ‘off’ in the human genome so that all the multiplicity of cell types we need, from neurons to muscle cells, can be formed from a single fertilised human egg cell. Every cell in our bodies has the same copy of our DNA ‘blueprint’, but epigenetics makes it possible for the many essential cell types to grow and function. If epigenetics goes wrong, the result can be disease.

Grant funding from the Evelyn Trust made a major contribution to setting up the IBD research lab and securing its expansion. Recent results have been very exciting.

“We were convinced that epigenetic changes might be present in children suffering from IBD and it was really gratifying to be the first group able to demonstrate those changes in the most crucial inner cell layer of the gut wall. Our data also suggests that those changes go hand in hand with changes in the composition of the gut bacteria,” explains Dr Zilbauer.

“What this will mean for patients is that we may soon be able to reduce suffering by identifying the most effective treatment for each child more quickly. This should lead us ultimately to the ‘holy grail’ of personalised medicine in IBD which would make a major difference in quality of life for patients and their families.”

The grant enabled Dr Zilbauer and his team to recruit over 140 children into the study, generating a uniquely large paediatric sample cohort and ‘biobank’ with both gut and blood samples from which several specific cell types have been purified.

“Researchers in IBD around the world have been very excited by the establishment of this precious biobank of samples which will facilitate many future projects and it has already led to some very productive collaboration with fellow clinicians and leading scientists,” adds Dr Zilbauer.

For a grant-making body such as the Evelyn Trust that’s the very best kind of ‘added value’.