Taking on this mission, the new miGut-Health research project strives to empower people living with IBD by creating state-of-the-art strategies for early disease prediction, prevention, and health monitoring. This will be achieved through data-driven approaches, personalised preventive interventions (such as nutritional changes), and innovative eHealth solutions. The ultimate goal of the 12 partners is to kickstart a shift from disease management to prevention. Over the next four years, the miGut-Health project will receive a total of EUR 7.5 million in funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme and the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation (SERI). The project ist coordinated by Professor Andre Franke, Steering Committee Member of the Cluster of Excellence PMI and Director of the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology at Kiel University and the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH), Campus Kiel.
With over three million people in the EU diagnosed with IBD, the associated annual healthcare costs amount to approximately EUR 5 billion. Moreover, symptoms such as abdominal pain, fatigue, and rectal bleeding can significantly affect an individual’s daily life. IBD’s unpredictable, alternating periods of remission and relapse add to the mental and physical burden of the disease for people affected by IBD.
To diminish this socio-economic burden, miGut-Health researchers will work in three interconnected research areas: determining gut health biomarkers, assessing personalised prevention measures, and development of citizen health engagement strategies.
Novel eHealth technologies enable the active engagement of people in their healthcare. miGut-Health will develop and improve several AI-assisted eHealth platforms that collect patient reported outcome measures (so-called PROMs) and monitor health status, disease activity and nutrition. To this end, researchers will provide personalised recommendations for better disease detection, management, treatment and prevention.
“Our aim in miGut-Health is to empower people living with IBD, individuals at high risk of developing IBD, and healthcare providers by putting them at the centre of our research,” says project coordinator Professor Andre Franke.
By measuring gut health biomarkers, such as the gut microbiome, researchers in the miGut-Health project can learn about problems in the digestive system and how to improve gut health.
“Until today, there are only a few validated biomarkers for gut health assessment, which is why we will continue to identify and test existing biomarkers, integrate available extensive omics data, and search for novel biomarkers using state-of-art technologies and methods,” explains project co-coordinator Professor Jurgita Skieceviciene from the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences.
MEDICA-tradefair.com; Source: Exzellenzcluster Präzisionsmedizin für chronische Entzündungserkrankungen
