Report on the 5th Y-ECCO Basic Science Workshop

5th Y-ECCO Basic Science Workshop 2019 © ECCO

The workshop comprised three sessions. The first speaker, John Nik Ding, who had travelled all the way from Melbourne, Australia, talked about understanding and integrating metabolomics in IBD. This was followed by three basic science abstracts presented by Sare Verstockt (“Distinct and common gene expression profiles between inflamed ileum and colon of newly diagnosed CD patients”), Dezso Modos (“Signalling and transcriptional network propagation uncovers novel Ulcerative Colitis pathogenetic pathways from single nucleotide polymorphisms”) and Agatha Treveil (“The regulatory landscape of intestinal cells – investigating the transcriptional effect of autophagy impairment observed in Crohn’s disease using organoid and network biology approaches”). Our second expert speaker, Dermot McGovern, had also travelled a long distance to be at the ECCO Congress, all the way from Los Angeles, USA. His talk, which gave an overview on complex genetics, was very well received and got people thinking about their own genetic profiles. Following this, we had a further three abstracts presented by Ana Montalban-Arques (“Supplementation with butyrate producing bacteria reduces tumor load in a mouse model of colitis associated cancer), Catherine Le Berre (“Myenteric plexitis and post-operative recurrence in Crohn’s disease: The role of enteric glial cells and ICAM-1) and finally Marieke Barnhoorn (“The cytokine milieu in patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease impacts the phenotype of mesenchymal stromal cells”).

5th Y-ECCO Basic Science Workshop 2019 © ECCO

For the first time in our short history of Basic Science Workshops we also ran an interactive basic science “dragons’ den”, moderated by the Young ECCO Committee Members, both new and old. Participants were divided into groups in which they worked together to think about the basic science methodologies required to answer several prepared research questions. Our panel of experts comprised: Dermot McGovern from Cedars-Sinai, Los Angeles, USA; Willem Bemelman from AMC, the Netherlands; Jonas Halfvarson from Örebro, Sweden; and Isabelle Cleynen from Leuven, Belgium. This session was very well received and thoroughly enjoyed by the participants.  

Y-ECCO Abstract Awards 2019 © ECCO

Towards the end of the programme, we were delighted to present the five winners of the Y-ECCO Abstract Awards with their certificates. The winners and their abstract titles were: Loris Riccardo (“ST2+/IL-33 responsive cells promote tumorigenesis in colitis-associated colorectal cancer”), Robin Dart (“A novel mechanism of colonic epithelial-T cell cross-talk is dysregulated in IBD”), Iago Rodriguez-Lago (“Efficacy and safety of tacrolimus in ulcerative colitis: A nationwide, multicentric study from GETECCU”), Bram Verstockt (“A vedolizumab specific four-gene colonic signature accurately predicting future endoscopic remission in patients with inflammatory bowel disease”) and Johan Burisch (“Cost-analysis in a prospective European population-based inception cohort. Is there a cost-saving effect of biological therapy?”).

With this summary, I conclude my report and also my term as a Y-ECCO Officer. It has been an absolute pleasure to work with my dear friends, John Nik Ding, Dominik Bettenworth, Johan Burisch and Charlotte Hedin, and I would like to welcome the new Committee Members, Mark Samaan and Gianluca Pellino. I am grateful to have met so many amazing people who will undoubtedly be friends and ECCO Family for life. All the best!