About IBD BioResource
Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), comprising Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, affects approximately 500,000 people in the UK causing relapsing intestinal inflammation. Long-term management often requires major surgery and costly drug treatments to which responses vary considerably for poorly understood reasons. To help in the fight against Crohn’s and colitis, the IBD BioResource was established in 2016.
Our aim is to build a national research platform of 50,000 recallable IBD patients and create a detailed panel of genetic and clinical descriptive data. This panel is accessible by any investigators to assist IBD studies and to accelerate the road to developing new, better-targeted and successful treatments.
Key goals
- To recruit 50,000 patients with Crohn’s or colitis from all over the UK, including 1,000 individuals who are new to their diagnosis
- Genetic analysis to identify markers of disease risk, severity and treatment response.
- Participants to be directly notified of future IBD research projects they might be willing to help with and be recalled for
- Scientists and Clinical Investigators to get rapid access to large groups of IBD patients and to de-personalised data for research
Paediatric IBD (PIBD) BioResource
The paediatric arm of the IBD BioResource aims to study an overall resource of over 5,000 patients with paediatric onset IBD (PIBD). Those who have already been diagnosed with IBD will be recruited, along with 150 newly diagnosed paediatric patients.
As of June 2024, we have recruited over 300 participants and have 9 active recruitment sites with 3 new sites to open in 2024.
The PIBD BioResource is led by paediatric gastroenterologist Professor Holm Uhlig in Oxford. Find out more about his work and PIBD.
Gut Reaction
Gut Reaction aims to build on the high-quality health data in the NIHR IBD BioResource by combining it with ‘real-world’ data from participating NHS hospitals and the IBD Registry. This will allow researchers to use the pooled data to support important research into IBD.
Want to make a difference?
Our volunteers help to advance health research that benefits generations to come. Every volunteer makes a difference.
Where do we operate?
The IBD BioResource is open in over 100 participating sites across the UK, including one in Scotland and two in Wales, and has recruited over 46,000 IBD patients to date.
What does taking part involve?
If you have Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis and are willing to participate in future IBD research then please check whether your hospital is included in the list of open sites, as recruitment needs to happen through your local hospital clinic.
Our Centres and Programmes
The NIHR BioResource is a network of Centres that recruit participants locally and lead research programmes.
