The Australian Government has announced $66 million for 25 genomic research projects that will make a real difference to people’s lives. Funding is from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF).
Professor Joseph Powell, together with his research team, was awarded funding to support research into predicting which patients respond best to IBD treatment.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) affects millions of people worldwide, causing chronic inflammation in the digestive tract that can lead to debilitating ongoing abdominal pain, diarrhoea and weight loss. Biologic therapies – genetically engineered drugs that target specific parts of the immune system – have revolutionised IBD treatment but they do not work for all patients.
Professor Joseph Powell will lead a four-year project to develop a test predicting patients’ responses to IBD biologic therapy, enabling personalised treatment. The test will be based on multi-omic data, integrating biological information such as genes, proteins, and metabolites with clinical and demographic information to create comprehensive patient profiles.
The project will analyse cellular data from the flagship OneK1K project. Using machine learning, the team will identify shared patterns in treatment response to form predictions that help clinicians choose the most appropriate therapy for an individual.
Predictive models for treatment response could also inform future research into new treatments and personalised medicine for other complex diseases.
“Our approach could lead to major progress in IBD diagnosis and treatment. Harnessing the power of machine learning and multi-omics data could improve outcomes, decrease side effects, and enhance quality of life for millions living with IBD worldwide,” says Professor Powell.