Research & Innovation | Overview
The VEOIBD Program is at the forefront of research and discovery in the field of VEOIBD. We spearhead numerous international, multi-center clinical and translational research projects to further advance our understanding of VEOIBD as we strive to offer improved treatments and outcomes for our patients. Our team leads publications describing unique clinical approaches for diagnosing, treating, and offering personalized therapeutics and — occasionally — even cures to patients with VEOIBD.
The VEOIBD Consortium
Our team is part of the VEOIBD Consortium, a group co-founded by Dr. Scott Snapper, chief of Boston Children’s Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition and director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center. As part of the consortium, we work alongside international collaborators to expand our knowledge of VEOIBD and apply updated, personalized treatments for our patients.
Leaders in VEOIBD research
Our highly accomplished team of physician-scientists is constantly working to expand the understanding of VEOIBD through basic, translational, and clinical research. We are leaders in:
- Identification of novel genetic causes of VEOIBD
- Identification of novel and personalized therapeutics
- Setting expert physician guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of VEOIBD
- Spearheading and conducting numerous studies focused on multiple factors contributing to the disease (including genetics and transcriptomics, microbiome, virome, and environmental factors)
- Publishing papers on our experience with various off-label drugs, doses, and therapeutic approaches in this distinct patient population
Research that helps personalize care
To help tailor our care to every patient, we gather information from a variety of sources, including a patient’s presenting symptoms, their endoscopic and pathologic findingsintestinal, biopsies, imaging, detailed bloodwork including advanced immune evaluation. In most cases we evaluate a patient’s genes for possible causes of their VEOIBD. In select cases, we also include more advanced functional evaluations including generation and interrogation of patient-derived intestinal organoids and specific functional assays of a patient’s blood and intestinal cells These investigations allow us to better understand the unique underlying mechanisms of disease in individual patients with VEOIBD, as well as offer leading-edge, targeted treatments.