The Gut Translational Research Group

Individual members of the The Gut Translational Research Group gathered together and stood on steps facing the camera

Professor Gwo-tzer Ho's lab, The Gut Translational Research Group, is strongly focused on understanding the fundamentals of gut biology and disease-specific mechanisms in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Strategically, the Ho Lab links basic discovery science to human translation with a portfolio program of immune-metabolism, immunity to biomarker discovery and interventional trials.

  • Mitochondrial Danger Signals in IBD (MUSIC Study) - this Scotland-wide prospective longitudinal cohort study incorporates a clinical and multi-omic approach towards understanding ‘how the gut heals in IBD’.
  • Mitochondrial Anti-oxidant therapy in IBD (MARVEL Study) - building from work in the lab, this is a UK multicentre Phase 2 RCT into the use of oral mitochondrial antioxidants in Ulcerative colitis
  • Oral-gut microbiome interaction and immune response in Crohn’s disease
  • Characterisation of M-cells and bacterial sampling in Crohn’s disease
  • Fatigue IBD - Large scale characterisation of IBD-associated fatigue towards mechanistic studies to develop new therapeutic approaches
  • Metabolic approaches to enhance gut repair in IBD using patient-derived organoids
  • Novel diagnostic technologies - Mitochondrial and metabolic markers. IDXsense (ERC-funded) project to develop Granzyme B tests to stratify T-cell responses in IBD
    • With Professor Marc Vendrell.
  • Imaging approaches, FATE-CD, the use of PET-MRI FAPI scanning to understand and monitor the development of fibrosis in Crohn’s disease
    • With Dr Rahul Kalla
  • Development of novel in vitro experimental plaffroms to study human IBD gut
    • With Professor Robert Gray and Nikolaj Gadergaard
  • Macrophage biology in Crohn’s disease
    • With Dr Calum Bain and Dr Gareth Rhys Jones
  • Building the next generation data approach with real-world NHS clinical data to predict IBD-specific mechanisms
    • With Dr Shaun Chuah

Key experimental approaches are strongly based on direct human patients data and bio samples including use of patient-derived organoids, immune-cells and multi-omic data with almost 1,500 patients involved in our studies in the last five years.

Key Funders

Meet the Team

Our People

A head and shoulders portrait shot of Professor Gwo-Tzer Ho

Professor Gow-tzer Ho

Lab leader Gwo-tzer, a Professor of Gastroenterology, has a strong interest in understanding the processes that govern gut mucosal healing in Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative colitis; and bridging discovery science to the clinic. He continues to care for IBD patients in the clinic and maintains a keen interest in patient-public engagement.

 

 

Dr Calum Bain

Principal Investigator | Reader (Immunology & Infection)

 

 

A head and shoulders portrait shot of Dr Gareth-Rhys Jones 

Dr Gareth-Rhys Jones

Principal Investigator Gareth, a Clinical Senior Research Fellow, is a new group leader in human gut immunology, focusing on the dual role of myeloid cells as instigators of both barrier damage and barrier repair in IBD. He is also the clinician forum representative to the British Society for Immunology and works closely with international collaborators, including Carl Anderson (Sanger Institute), Bill Agace (University of Copenhagen) and James Lee (The Francis Crick Institute) to further our understanding of the biology of IBD.

 

 

Dr Shaun Chuah

Principal Investigator | Clinical Senior Research Fellow