# New computational, transcriptional, and genome editing approaches to the biology of inflammatory bowel disease

> **NIH NIH R01** · GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · 2020 · $173,912

## Abstract

Project Summary
Over the past decade, the NIDDK IBDGC (Inflammatory Bowel Disease Genetics Consortium) has
generated extraordinary datasets in support of genetic analysis of the onset, progression, and therapeutic
response to Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. This Ancillary project will complement ongoing IBDGC
research by providing parallel statistical genetic analyses focused on transcriptomics, while also developing
a novel strategy for genetic manipulation of patient-derived epithelial cells. There are four major
biomedical genomics focus areas addressed by the research, namely fine mapping of loci influencing
inflammatory bowel disease, elucidation of the cell and molecular function of causal genes, understanding
how polymorphism influences pathology, and translating quantitative genetic discoveries into clinical
outcomes. Specifically, integrative genomics expertise will be used to refine the credible intervals
responsible for complex association signals at individual loci, enhance transcriptional risk scores (TRS) that
have recently been shown to provide much greater prediction of disease and progression than genetic risk
scores, and explore the potential of in silico predicted transcriptome-wide association studies in the context
of IBD. These studies will utilize the IBDGC datasets through collaborative arrangements mediated by data
coordinating center. In addition, proof of principle for the use of lipid nanoparticles as an efficient and
specific delivery system for genome editing and/or pharmaceutical delivery to targeted cell types in gut-
derived organoids will be demonstrated. Single cell RNA-Seq will be used to partition variability in gut
epithelial gene expression in the half dozen most common organoid cell types into contributions of the
ethnicity, location of the biopsy, type of disease, and source laboratory. This data will serve as a foundation
for evaluating the effects of a half dozen gene knock-outs across cell types using the lipid nanoparticle
delivery system. All analyses and reagents will be made available to consortium members as expected for
collaborative IBDGC research.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9976502
- **Project number:** 5R01DK119991-03
- **Recipient organization:** GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
- **Principal Investigator:** GREGORY C GIBSON
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $173,912
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-19 → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9976502

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9976502, New computational, transcriptional, and genome editing approaches to the biology of inflammatory bowel disease (5R01DK119991-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9976502. Licensed CC0.

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