Kay Greveson © ECCO

The ECCO IBD Nurse Education Programme was introduced in 2018. Prior to embarking on the development of the programme, N-ECCO undertook a survey regarding the IBD nurse role in 2014 and found very large variation across Europe, with the role still being in its infancy in some countries. The level of education also varied. A scoping exercise was done to see whether there was a need for an educational programme. A total of 140 responses were obtained from a mix of clinical IBD nurses, nurses who reported that they cared for patients with IBD but whose role was not specifically IBD care, and research nurses. There was overwhelming agreement on the need for this type of programme and over 60% said that they had no accredited IBD course available to them. In all countries the largest provider of IBD training was the pharmaceutical companies. 

Tim Raine © ECCO

The generation of expert guidelines to assist and guide management decisions for patients living with IBD lies at the heart of the mission of ECCO. This makes GuiCom a very busy Committee within ECCO. Additionally, as many will be aware, GuiCom has moved towards using the GRADE methodology for future guidelines projects wherever appropriate. Whilst this will undoubtedly improve the quality and accountability of our guidelines, it is clear that the introduction of GRADE methodology comes at a cost in terms of the significant extra effort that will be demanded of all guideline participants and committee members.  

November 16, 2018

On November 16, the 60th ECCO Educational Workshop took place in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, with the participation of Antonio López San Román (Spain) and Henit Yanai (Israel) as representatives of ECCO along with other speakers from the Canary Islands such as Laura Ramos, Daniel Ceballos, José Miguel Marrero and Mariela Braithwaite as well as Ana Catarina Rego (Portugal).

October 9, 2018

The 59th ECCO Educational Workshop was held in Montevideo, Uruguay, on October 9, 2018. The workshop was a pre-congress course during the national Uruguayan congress of gastroenterology (Gastroendo 2018), at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Montevideo.

September 28, 2018

The 58th ECCO Educational Workshop on paediatric IBD, held on September 28, 2018 was jointly organised by Belgium and the Netherlands and took place in Antwerp, Belgium. The ECCO Faculty, comprising Patrick van Rheenen and Lissy de Ridder from the Netherlands and John Mansfield from Newcastle, United Kingdom, joined the local faculty consisting of Isabelle Scheers, Nicolette Moes and Els Van de Vijver. Lindley Fritze from the ECCO Office provided efficient and smooth organisation of the meeting on the spot.

September 5, 2018

The 57th ECCO Educational Workshop was held in Helsinki, Finland on September 5, 2018. The meeting preceded the annual two-day autumn meeting of the Finnish Society of Gastroenterology and attracted adult and paediatric gastroenterologists and IBD nurses from all parts of Finland. The workshop was chaired by the Finnish ECCO National Representatives Pauliina Molander and Clas-Göran af Björkesten, with the other faculty members being Taina Sipponen, Pascal Juillerat and Christian Maaser.

Valerie Pittet © ECCO

Marieke Pierik  © ECCO

The FAIR Data Principles propose that scientific outputs should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable [1]. Their aim is to encourage the adoption of good practices with respect to the publication of scientific research data. To this purpose, they provide a list of recommendations regarding documentation of data and datasets that are designed to be helpful for researchers and for computers.

John Mansfield © ECCO

ClinCom is pleased to present the 3rd School for Clinical Trialists: Clinical Trial Evolution and Recruitment in IBD, on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, 08:00-11:30.

ClinCom exists as an ECCO Committee to further develop and encourage clinical trial activity in IBD within ECCO. This, the 3^rd School for Clinical Trialists, will give clinicians, nurses, research coordinators and all those interested in clinical trials a state-of-the-art view of the evolution of clinical trial design and practical aspects of the key problem of how to optimise trial recruitment.

Definition of IBD-associated gut virome via next-generation sequencing: Novel insights for disease onset and treatments

Federica Ungaro © Federica Ungaro

Aim of Research

Viral infections have been reported to be the primary trigger in many diseases. Preliminary results from RNA-seq analysis performed on mucosal biopsies of patients with active Crohn’s Disease (CD) or Ulcerative Colitis (UC) and healthy controls revealed indicated an IBD-specific viral signature, characterised by increased levels of viral RNAs, especially in patients with UC.

Although analyses on gut virome composition are available, to date nobody has described which viruses are involved in IBD onset. We propose characterising the viral composition of gut mucosal samples from early-diagnosed patients with IBD and healthy subjects by exploiting transcriptomic analysis. Moreover, through RNA silencing experiments, we will investigate whether the inhibition of viral-specific RNAs may be beneficial in mucosal biopsies from patients with active IBD. Results obtained from this study are expected to lead to the unveiling of a novel concept depicting IBD aetiopathogenesis as related to specific viral infections. This will arguably offer new therapeutic insights and promote the search for antiviral drugs for the treatment of IBD.

Identification of the functional role of NLRP6 in human Crohn’s Disease

Dina Danso-Abeam © Dina Danso-Abeam

Aim of Research

The introduction of biological therapies such as anti-TNF has led to a decrease in surgery in IBD. However, many patients do not benefit from this treatment: One-third of patients do not respond to induction therapy (primary non-responders) and about half of primary responders lose response over time (secondary non-responders). This is in part due to therapeutic targeting of generalised inflammation rather than specific targeting of well-defined molecular mediators of IBD pathogenesis.

Most recently, the nod-like receptor NLRP6 has come to light for its potential role in local inflammation driven by gut microbial dysbiosis, albeit almost all data are emerging from mouse models. Our preliminary data from a patient harbouring a novel NLRP6 mutation show significant dysregulation in multiple immune cells, providing strong evidence for the role of NLRP6 in immune homeostasis. Taking into account the high expression of NLRP6 in human intestine, this project aims to decipher the role of NLRP6 in the pathology of Crohn’s Disease (CD).