2023 Janssen NZSG Research Fellowship Grant Recipient

Research Project: “Development of an IFN signature panel to predict clinical non-response to anti-TNF treated inflammatory bowel disease patients and its role in modulation of the epithelial innate response to commensal metabolites”.

This research aims to:

1. Identify specific targets of the Type I and II IFN signalling pathways in IBD non-responders to build an IFN gene signature panel that predicts clinical non-response in IBD patients treated with anti-TNFs.
2. Define a role for selected Type I and II IFN targets in priming the epithelial response to develop tolerance to the commensal metabolite, butyrate, in IBD non-responsive patients, by reprogramming the innate epithelial secretome.

Key researchers are from University of Otago:

Safina Gadeock; Department of Microbiology and Immunology; Principal Investigator. Gemma Laws; Department of Microbiology and Immunology; PhD student. Gemma will be assisting in setting up the 2D patient-derived organoid monolayers with IFN treatments.
Roslyn Kemp; Department of Microbiology and Immunology; Associate Investigator. Roslyn will co-lead the overall design of the project and has established tikanga protocols in the lab following consultation with Takiwai Russell-Camp.
Michael Schultz; Department of Medicine; Associate Investigator. Michael is a gastroenterologist and Head of Department of Medicine. Michael will provide clinical samples and oversee all ethical issues for the research.

The Janssen- NZSG Research Fellowship is awarded annually with an award of up to $65,000. This award is funded between NZSG and a generous gift from Janssen Pharmaceutical. To find out more about the fellowship please see the NZSG webpage.