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Research & Innovation

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 studies to further advance our understanding of VEOIBD as we strive to offer improved treatments and outcomes for our patients. Our team leads work 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 international 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 VEOIBD Consortium, we work alongside international collaborators to expand our knowledge of VEOIBD and apply innovative, 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
  • Developing expert physician guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of VEOIBD
  • Spearheading and conducting numerous studies focused on understanding a diversity of disease drivers (including genetics, microbiome, virome, and environmental factors)
  • Publishing our experience with off-label use of conventional and non-conventional IBD therapies, including efficacy, safety, and dosing data, in this distinct patient population

Research that helps personalize care

Our VEOIBD Program has resources and pipelines to perform multi-omic evaluation of every VEOIBD patient. This includes evaluation of genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic profiles from patient blood and intestinal tissue. The goal of these evaluations is to understand an individual patient’s unique disease drivers and characterize their inflammatory profiles in a way which may inform treatment.

In some cases, we develop organoids (“small spheres of intestines grown in a dish”) from patient biopsies, which enable us to better understand their unique tissue characteristics and test treatment strategies. In other cases, we perform functional assays to test various cytokine signaling pathways in a patient’s blood cells.

These approaches allow us to better understand the unique underlying mechanisms of disease in individual patients with VEOIBD, and in some cases inform selection of targeted therapies.