Unravelling the Complex Causes of Crohn’s Disease

Crohn’s Disease (CD) is a type of inflammatory bowel disease that is due to abnormalities of the gastrointestinal (GI) immune system that result in immunologic hyper-responsiveness to normal GI constituents. It causes severe and recurrent GI symptoms that can be managed but not cured, except in rare cases where histocompatible bone marrow transplantation can be applied to replace the errant immune system. Dr Warren Strober from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the USA, specialises in the study of the GI immune system, both when it operates normally to maintain homeostasis, as well as when it operates abnormally causing health issues such as CD.