Congratulations to the winners of the ECCO Fellowships and Grants awarded at ECCO’25 in snowy Berlin this year.  ECCO is investing up to EUR 1.8 million in scientific research. Learn more here about the new projects that will be supported by ECCO in 2025.  At ECCO’25, Berlin, the winners of the ECCO Fellowships and Grants programme received their certificates, presented by Fernando Magro together with Britta Siegmund.

Harry Sokol © ECCO

Diet is now widely recognised to be a significant factor in the pathogenesis of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). A growing body of epidemiological research has established links between dietary behaviour, particularly consumption of the Mediterranean diet vs the Western diet, and the risk of developing Crohn’s Disease and/or Ulcerative Colitis. Moreover, mechanistic studies, often conducted in mouse models, have shed light on how specific dietary components impact the onset and severity of intestinal inflammation. For instance, dietary fibres, fatty acids and emulsifiers have been shown to directly affect host cells or modulate the composition and functions of the gut microbiota, thereby influencing IBD progression. In addition, intervention studies involving human subjects now emphasise the importance of incorporating diet into the therapeutic approach for IBD. However, the optimal role of diet in managing IBD remains an area of ongoing investigation.

Bella Ungar © ECCO

Pokémon is a globally popular Japanese cartoon. My son is a Pokémon enthusiast. He loves the thrilling evolution of Pokémon creatures from the young Pokémon into its more advanced form. The suspense surrounding the ECCO Young Researcher Award mirrors this Pokémon transformation, as emerging researchers in our community are recognised for their own distinguished professional growth.

Two recipients of the 2024 ECCO Young Researcher Award, João Pedro Guedelha Sabino and Jakob Zimmerman, share their insights on how this ECCO recognition benefits their careers.

Nick Powell © ECCO

ECCO is proud of its continuing commitment to support innovative IBD research through its Fellowships, Grants and Travel Awards, including our flagship Pioneer Awards. Our grant programme now extends beyond the borders of Europe with the emergence of our new Global Grant supporting IBD research for low and lower-middle income countries. All of these research efforts continue to improve our understanding of IBD and change outcomes for our patients. None of this would be possible without our community of grant reviewers who provide an invaluable scientific service to the ECCO Family and the broader field of IBD. We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to our growing reviewer network of more than 500 experts, who have reviewed over 750 applications.

In this issue of the ECCO Newsletter we really wanted to highlight two “super reviewers”, Amy Lightner and Hannah Gordon, who have gone above and beyond the call of duty and delivered the highest overall number of reviews. Thank you both! To better understand the peer review process, what motivates reviewers and why potential reviewers in the ECCO Community might want to get involved in the process, I caught up with Amy and Hannah.       

Bella Ungar © ECCO

The first ECCO Global Grant was awarded at ECCO'24 to an international group leading a fascinating prospective study across Sub-Saharan Africa¹. The study is focusing on IBD genetics in the region and is being led by Professor Nick Croft and Dr. Phoebe Hodges from Queen Mary University of London, Professor Paul Kelly and colleagues from the Tropical Gastroenterology and Nutrition Group, University of Zambia and Professor McGovern and his group at Cedars-Sinai, Los Angeles. I had the privilege of discussing aspects of the study with members of the study consortium.

At ECCO’24, Stockholm, the winners of the ECCO Fellowships and Grants programme received their certificates, presented by SciCom Chair Marc Ferrante together with President Britta Siegmund. This year, a record number of grants were awarded, including the new Global Grant designed for low and lower-middle income countries as well as the IIS Registry Grant given for the first time. 

Isabelle Cleynen © ECCO

At the last ECCO Congress, we had three members stepping down from the ECCO Scientific Committee: Marc Ferrante (Leuven, Belgium; Member since 2019, Chair since 2023), Yves Panis (Clichy, France; Member since 2020) and Konstantinos Papamichail (Boston, US; Member since 2020). Although all three of them served on SciCom in a period greatly impacted by the pandemic, together with the other SciCom Members they ensured a seamless continuation of SciCom activities and the initiation of new ones.

Alicja Ewa Ratajczak-Pawłowska © Alicja Ewa Ratajczak-Pawłowska

As a result of my D-ECCO Travel Award, I was able to spend time at the San Filippo Neri Hospital in Rome during January 2023. There I collaborated with a team at the IBD Unit, UOC Gastroenterology. During my stay, I summarised the studies on nutritional determinants of bone mineral density among patients with Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis which my colleagues and I had conducted in the previous year. I collected data from food frequency questionnaires and laboratory tests, including with respect to calcium, vitamin D, folic acid and homocysteine levels. Additionally, I started planning future research on the impact of MTHFR gene polymorphism on folic acid and homocysteine status and on bone mineral density in patients suffering from IBD. I also had the opportunity to learn about the standard of care for IBD patients in Italy.

Deciphering the bioactive role of extracellular matrix fragments (matrikines) in Crohn's Disease (CD) fibrostenosis as potential therapeutic targets and biomarkers

Margarita Papatheodoridi   © Margarita Papatheodoridi

Background & aim of research

To evaluate the in vitro effect of selected novel matrix-derived peptides (matrikines) that specifically appear in the intestinal tissue of patients with Crohn’s Disease (CD) fibrostenosis on primary human intestinal myofibroblasts (iMFBs).

The gut mycobiome in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Continuation of the project initiated by Chloe Huseyin, ECCO Grant Awardee

Marcus Claesson   © Marcus Claesson

Background & aim of research

The conducted research had two aims:

Aim 1: To characterise the inter-/intra-individual composition of the mycobiome of patients with IBD and healthy controls utilising a variety of sample types and methodological techniques.

Aim 2: To provide a large dataset of fungal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) rRNA sequencing data to complement the bacterial 16S rRNA analysis underway in-house.