We conduct basic and clinical (translational) research. We mainly focus on three themes.
- Gastrointestinal motility
- Mucosal immunology
- Endoscopic diagnostics & surgery for gastrointestinal neoplasms
The GI motility team pursues the mechanisms that support the coordinated movement of GI tract. The team tries to understand the molecular mechanisms of the interaction among the cells that generate the bowel movement, i.e., the autonomic nerves, interstitial cells, and smooth muscle cells. The team also analyzes samples from esophageal achalasia patients and tries to elucidate the pathophysiology of the disease.
The mucosal immunology team tries to understand the mechanisms behind the dysregulated immune responses in IBD patients. The team collects samples from IBD patients and analyzes the features of inflamed mucosa—from genetic, immunological, and microbiological viewpoints. The team also focuses on the immunosuppressive regulatory T cells (Treg cells) and tries to elucidate the mechanisms of immunosuppression by Treg cells.
The endoscopic diagnostics & surgery team tries to develop better approaches for gastrointestinal neoplasms. The team's current focus is on developing new methods and devices for endoscopic diagnostics and surgery for gastrointestinal submucosal tumors, especially, gastrointestinal stromal cell tumors (GISTs) and neuroendocrine tumors (NETs).
Evidence-based high quality basic and clinical research.
Medical care nowadays must be based on a solid scientific and clinical evidence. In Gastro Health Centre, this is achieved through well-designed basic research and clinical studies to address good clinical questions and unmet medical needs. We have also organized multi-centre study groups, named as the Liver Form, Pancreas Form and Gut Forum, in which dozens of partnering hospitals participate. These groups enable us to perform clinical studies that require a large number of cases or involve rare diseases. Through these approaches, we have established a number of new non-invasive methods of examination, efficacious treatments and surveillance approach.
In Gastro Health Centre, regarding hepatobiliary and pancreatic diseases, we treat viral hepatitis, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, autoimmune liver disease, and autoimmune pancreatitis as well as liver and pancreatic neoplasms. As to gastrointestinal diseases, we focus on treating cancers and inflammatory bowel diseases. Simultaneously, we have performed a variety of physician-initiated observational and interventional studies for these diseases and are seeking new better treatments and efficacious biomarkers. The results of our studies have provided new clinical practice guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of digestive diseases. These works also lead to build a new scientific basis for how to approach these diseases.
Even though we benefit significantly from great advancement of medical field, most of the above diseases are still not fully curable and further therapeutic improvement are highly desired. We believe that this becomes possible through comprehensive understanding of fundament of disease pathogenesis. To this end, in our lab, we have performed basic research involving a diverse set of disciplines including immunology, molecular biology, genetics, statistics and so on. Through the high-quality and innovative research, we aim to understand the disease pathology at the molecular level and use this information to develop new biomarkers and therapeutics for an individual patient
Clinical Research Groups
Clinical Research Groups (CRGs) have been formed covering Endoscopy, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Food & Function, and Liver. Their aim is to increase the quality and quantity of clinical GI and liver research in the UK. The Food & Function CRG was formed to cover areas formerly within the remit of the Small Bowel & Nutrition and Neurogastroenterology & Motility Groups, with the addition of relevant pancreas-related research. Cancer Diagnosis & Prevention is expected to be covered within the current Groups and elsewhere and thus is no longer covered by a separate Group.
In 2010, each CRG submitted two to three research priorities or unmet clinical needs that most warranted research funding in their field, which laid the foundation for the National Clinical Research Strategy. This < has>Research Strategy has been revised in 2021 to reflect changes in the clinical research landscape.
The CRGs meet in person and by phone and welcome input from those interested in carrying out research. Contact information for the Leader of each CRG can be found below.