RCSI/CCI Knowledge Exchange Summary

On April 7th 2025, Crohn’s and Colitis Ireland in conjunction with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) kicked off a new Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) partnership with an online Knowledge Exchange Event. The purpose of the Webinar was to highlight research in the field of IBD that is ongoing in RCSI and Trinity College Dublin and the importance of patient involvement in this research. The Webinar started with an introduction from Niamh Dillon, the RCSI Programme Manager for the PPI Ignite Network. Niamh described how this nationwide network, funded by the Health Research Board and Research Ireland, provides a shared voice for PPI across Ireland, promoting and supporting PPI in health and social care research across Ireland. The Network is comprised of 7 universities, 10 national and over 50 local partner organisations More information about the PPI Ignite Network and how to become involved can be found here: https://ppinetwork.ie/

The main body of the Webinar was devoted to local IBD researchers describing their research work. Dr. Stephen Keely (RCSI) gave a broad overview of the research field describing how the development of IBD is currently understood to involve genetic and environmental factors that ultimately impact how immune cells and epithelial cells interact with bacteria living in the gut to trigger inflammation. He went on to describe how research in his laboratory focusses on a protein known as farnesoid X receptor (FXR). Research has shown that while FXR plays an important role in controlling inflammation in the gut, it is not expressed properly in the cells of patients with IBD. His research aims to determine why FXR is deficient in patients with IBD and to identify drugs, probiotics and dietary supplements that can restore FXR function to treat and prevent IBD progression.

Dr. Sudipto Das, also based at RCSI, described how his laboratory is focussed on understanding why different patients respond differently to anti-inflammatory drugs. This is a significant problem in the treatment IBD, since some patients do not respond well to first-line therapies, such as aminosalicylates, and may need treatment with immunosuppressants and biologic therapies. However, many of these patients also don’t respond well to treatment with biologics. Dr. Das’s research aims to understand the molecular reasons for differences in patient responses through focussing on proteins known as “master regulators”, which control how each person’s genes respond in the setting of inflammation. Through a better understanding of how they work, Dr. Das’s team aims to develop more effective diagnostics and increasingly “personalised” approaches to IBD treatment.

Next to speak was Prof. Jacintha O’Sullivan from Trinity College Dublin. Based at the Trinity Translational Medicine Institute at St. James’s Hospital, Prof. O’Sullivan’s research involves living tissues taken as biopsies from volunteer patients. Through her work, Prof. O’Sullivan aims to understand not only how cells within these tissues contribute to inflammation but also how they are altered in terms of the energy they produce. She described how increased cellular energy production is related to inflammatory responses and how her research aims to understand ways by which this can be controlled in patients with IBD. Her team works closely with the NatPro Centre at Trinity College to identify natural medicines derived from plants that can decrease energy production and inflammation in cells of the gut, with the ultimate goal of developing such plant extracts as new therapeutics.

Julie Gawenda, a Masters student in the laboratory of Prof. Shane Browne at RCSI, talked about her research on peristomal skin complications (PSCs). She described how such complications are very common in patients who have had an ostomy, resulting in increased hospital admissions, post-surgery costs, and hospital stays. PSCs are caused by the leaking of contents of the ostomy bag (dejecta) onto the skin and the main aim of Julie’s research project is to develop laboratory models to study PSCs and to try to better understand what it is that is present in the dejecta that causes skin damage.

Next, Prof. Aoibhlinn O’Toole, a Consultant Gastroenterologist at Beaumont Hospital, discussed clinical research in IBD. She highlighted how the past few decades have seen many new medications for IBD emerge and how this could only have been achieved through active patient participation by volunteering for clinical trials. She described how there are several benefits to patients that arise from engaging in such trials, including gaining access to new drugs that are not yet available on the market, making contributions to better treatments being developed, and opportunities to communicate what is important to people about living with IBD through reporting of patient-related outcome measures (e.g. fatigue, urgency). Prof. O’Toole also overviewed some of the clinical trials currently ongoing at Beaumont Hospital and how, going forward, such trials will aim to focus more on personalised medicine with the goal of tailoring specific treatment options for individual patients.

Finally, the webinar closed with a discussion between Amy Kelly of the CCI and Tammy Strickland, a PhD student studying at RCSI. Tammy talked about her lexperience of living with IBD and her chosen career path in the field of biomedical research. She discussed how carrying out a PhD project is highly challenging under any conditions but that doing so while living with a chronic condition, like IBD, presents additional challenges. Tammy encourages IBD patients to learn to advocate for themselves in the workplace and feels that the key to success in high-stress working environments is transparency, open communication, along with willing support from the employer.  While Tammy’s research into biological clocks and circadian rhythms is not directly related to IBD, she noted that rest and sleep are critical for managing flares and that patients should always consider their sleep time as being productive time.

If you would like to see the Knowledge Exchange Webinar in full you can find it here:

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