In conversation with Bella Ungar from SciCom and with Bram Verstockt and Robin Dart, former Y-ECCO Chair and current Y-ECCO Chair, respectively.
In May 2025, SciCom, together with Y-ECCO, co-hosted the first ever ECCO Webinar offering skills training for early career IBD Physicians (with CME credits*) on a range of research techniques, including such relevant topics as transcriptomics, genetics and epigenetics and the microbiome. The skills-building series was conceived by Bella Ungar, who, together with Bram Verstockt, the former Chair of Y-ECCO, built a programme to meet the e-learning materials gap in translational science for clinicians.
Bella Ungar: “These are important research areas with exciting new developments taking place at a quick pace. Clinicians often encounter terms such as ‘omics’ with which they are not entirely familiar. They often do not understand the ‘language’ behind publications they come across and find it challenging to assess the novel research techniques that they encounter. Understanding the evolving key processes leading to fundamental novel findings in IBD research is cardinal for our critical thinking as IBD caregivers and researchers.”
With top key opinion leaders as presenters, such as Harry Sokol (“Microbiome Mysteries: Decoding the Gut’s Role in IBD”) and Nick Powell (“Transcriptomics in IBD”), the webinar offered a high-quality, engaging deep dive into the molecular frontiers of IBD.
Bram Verstockt: “Y-ECCO is really committed to creating new training materials that meet the needs of today’s cohort of IBD specialists, such as our IBD Communication Toolbox for patient conversation training. So, it’s exciting to work with SciCom and to offer recorded webinars with CME credits that really count towards their professional development.”
SciCom and Y-ECCO, now with Robin Dart as the Chair, envisage a future webinar diving deeper into proteomics, glycosylation processes and immunology to complete this basic training in IBD research.
As Robin Dart highlights: “IBD specialists, at all stages of their careers, really appreciate the first-hand knowledge-sharing of such experienced researchers from the ECCO Community. The chance to ask questions directly, and to discuss, makes such a difference.”
You can watch this dynamic SciCom-Y-ECCO Webinar on the e-Learning Platform here: Molecular Frontiers in IBD: a Deep Dive into Omics and Beyond for IBD Specialists. In addition, the IBD Communication Toolbox is available here: IBD Communication Toolbox.
In 2026, ECCO plans five new webinars—follow the new ECCO Webinar page for further details.
(*The webinar provides attendees CME credits only when watched live.)
