Researchers from The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto have found a previously unknown genetic cause of Crohn’s disease and uncovered how those changes trigger inflammation through a key immune pathway. The findings, published in Gastroenterology and involving teams from eight countries, will guide more precise treatments and improve the ability to match patients to therapies based on their unique biology.

“We’ve brought together genetics, RNA sequencing, proteomics and more to try for the first time to map the complete disease pathway, and it’s turned into a remarkable precision medicine story,” says lead author Dr. Aleixo Muise, senior scientist in the Cell & Systems Biology program, staff gastroenterologist and co-director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Centre at SickKids.

“In our SickKids clinic, we want to find the right drug for each person based on their body’s unique signature. That’s why this paper is so exciting: We have pinpointed a druggable pathway.”