Roche and BHP collaborate to improve treatment of IBD

Biotechnology company Roche will work with Birmingham Health Partners (BHP) on an £850,000 collaboration to improve the diagnose and care of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Roche and BHP will investigate promising biomarkers and inflammatory mechanisms in the search for new treatment targets for IBD.

IBD affects around 250,000 people in the UK in the form of ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, and is characterised by an imbalance in gut bacteria which causes debilitating damage to the intestines.

Current treatments for IBD target the body’s immune response but can be ineffective for many patients, meaning they have to undergo invasive surgery.

The project will take place at BHP founder-member University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) with Roche scientists. BHP colleagues at the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences (ICVS) and Microbiome Treatment Centre will also work on the project.

Newly-diagnosed IBD patients will be seen weekly at new clinics across sister UHB sites Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and Heartlands Hospital.

Up to 60 patients will have samples taken before they begin treatment to allow researchers to investigate biomarkers identified by Dr Asif Iqbal of ICVS. Dr Iqbal’s team will study disease pathology including the role of immune cells, the microbiome and metabolome in driving the various inflammatory mechanisms associated with IBD.

Professor Tariq Iqbal, consultant gastroenterologist at UHB and director of the Microbiome Treatment Centre at the University of Birmingham said: “IBD is an underfunded disease area and the potential benefits to patients which will arise as a result of this collaboration are likely to be life changing for many. Those participating in the trial will help build the first clinical resource of its kind from which we aim to promote earlier diagnosis and more effective treatments.

“Cross-discipline collaboration, facilitated by BHP, will be crucial in unlocking these advances as we tap in to expertise in specialties such as genomic sequencing as well as the University’s Microbiome Treatment Centre.”

Dr Asif Iqbal added: “This project will demonstrate the power of combining basic science with translational clinical research for patient benefit. Through identifying targets in immune cells which drive this chronic inflammatory disease, we hope to develop a range of novel therapeutics.”