Approved Research

New integrated approaches based on phenotype and genetic data to explore the potential pathogenesis and novel biomarkers for the digestive diseases

Lay summary

AIMS: The goal of this project is to identify potential biomarkers for digestive diseases and comorbidity for the development of predictive systems in disease diagnosis and prognosis, by combining clinical phenotypic, and genetic data from UK Biobank and single-cell sequencing datasets.

SCIENTIFIC RATIONALE: The combination of different methods of sequencing technology provides a powerful toolbox to investigate the pathogenesis of multiple complex diseases. Currently, our team has applied them to study the underlying mechanism of intestinal fibrosis in inflammatory bowel diseases.

PROJECT DURATION: The project is expected to take three years.

PUBLIC HEALTH IMPACT: This comprehensive study aims to disentangle the complex interaction between genetic variants and environmental risk factors in the pathogenesis of digestive diseases. We will interrogate the associations between potential risk factors or biomarkers and the incidence of digestive diseases and comorbidity. Additionally, we aim to identify individuals with a higher risk for certain digestive disorders, and ultimately develop tailored treatment strategies accounting for genetic backgrounds.