IMAGINE BEING OUT IN PUBLIC AND SUDDENLY HAVING A PRESSING URGE to find the closest toilet. Immediately. Although this may not be unusual for the average person, when this symptom repeats frequently throughout the day and is accompanied by abdominal pain, bleeding, weight loss and fatigue, it can be debilitating. Unfortunately, this is a reality for the 270,000 Canadians currently living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
For UBC Okanagan microbiologist Dr. Deanna Gibson these numbers are unacceptable. Her research team at the Centre for Microbiome and Inflammatory Disease Research is focused on understanding the causes of IBD and other chronic inflammatory gut conditions, with the ultimate goal of developing treatments to ease patients’ suffering.
“IBD typically hits young adults and very often has a significant negative impact on their quality of life,” says Dr. Gibson, an associate professor in the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science. “So, we’re trying to figure out what happens before their symptoms occur — when the story began, so to speak — and how we can influence that narrative.”
Read the full story here: UBC Okanagan Stories