About
The Translational Gastro-enterology Unit within the Nuffield Department of Medicine in the University of Oxford is a centre of excellence in academic gastroenterology, which combines clinical care, undergraduate and post-graduate teaching with basic, translational and clinical research. Inflammatory bowel disease is a major focus of research activity, as well as clinical care with over 5000 IBD patients seen annually. The centre was the site of the first randomised trial in Gastroenterology carried out almost 70 years ago; the first centre to use biologicals in IBD in the UK; research highlights include the characterisation of the genetic architecture of IBD; and the identification of the toxic peptides in gluten that drive coeliac disease. The team in the TGU interact very closely with the Clinical Trials Facility, and the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre.
Role in METHYLOMIC project
Jack Satsangi, Alex Noble and Alex Adams collaborated with the team in Amsterdam in developing the predictive methylation signatures to be used in the Methylomic clinical trial, as co-investigators in the pivotal EPIC studies supported by the EC, ECCO and Helmsley Trust. In the Methylomic trial, we lead Work Package 1 to refine and further validate the methylation signature. Oxford patients with Crohn’s disease will also be included in the pivotal Omicron trial.