B Y M A R C I A K AY E
vs. Microbiome edition
The CCC-GEM Project explores how genetics and environment affect the gut microbiome — and the development of IBD Could our microbiomes be the key to our health? These mysterious communities of microbes that live on and within each of us are a hot topic of research today. Scientists are working to understand the links between our microbiomes and a vast range of illnesses and conditions, from anxiety and asthma to heart disease and obesity. While these microorganisms reside both on and in our bodies, a major focus of research at Sinai Health System is the gut microbiome and how it relates to inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD. IBD, which includes Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, causes inflammation of the lining of the gastrointestinal tract, which can 16
lead to debilitating pain, fatigue and malnourishment. There is treatment but no cure. The cause of IBD is unknown, although it tends to run in families. But why do some people develop IBD while others from the same family don’t? Could it have something to do with their microbiomes? That’s what Dr. Ken Croitoru aims to find out. Dr. Croitoru, a gastroenterologist at Mount Sinai Hospital and scientist at the LunenfeldTanenbaum Research Institute, both part of Sinai Health System, is the project leader on a major global study called the Crohn’s Colitis Canada GEM
Project (CCC-GEM Project), which stands for Genetic, Environmental, Microbial determinants of Crohn’s disease. The CCC-GEM Project, funded in part by Crohn’s Colitis Canada, The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, began in 2008. It has since recruited 5,000 people who were healthy but at risk of developing Crohn’s because they have a parent or sibling with the disease. So far 70 have developed Crohn’s. “The idea is that if you study those individuals before and after they get Crohn’s disease, and you compare their microbiome
makeup to someone who does not go on to develop the disease, you’re then in a position to identify what might be the trigger or cause.” The Sinai-led study includes participants in more than 100 sites in Canada, the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Sweden. And what have the researchers found? “We’re just beginning to peek under the hood,” says Dr. Croitoru. “We already have data that show there is a barrier dysfunction, a leaky gut, that exists before disease starts. And we’ve identified a few individual bacteria that seem to be quite
