The UK IBD Genetics Consortium comprises clinicians and scientists with a track record of successful collaborative research in the genetics of inflammatory bowel disease. Our aims are to try and understand the genetic factors that:
A) lead some people to develop IBD
B) predict disease progression and
C) are responsible for drug response and intolerance.
We are an open consortium, and have recruitment centres in Cambridge, Edinburgh, Manchester, Newcastle, Exeter, Oxford, London, Dundee and Nottingham (see map below). Together we have amassed nearly 15000 DNA samples from British patients with Crohn’s disease and UC. We work extremely closely with our key collaborators, Jeff Barrett and Carl Anderson, at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (where a large part of the first human genome was sequenced). Our typical experiments generate huge amounts of data, which require expert handling, tight quality control and complicated analysis. We are also a key part of the International IBD Genetics Consortium (IIBDGC) with over 40,000 patients recruited from 20 different countries. The UKIBDGC has contributed over a third of these samples.