Celiac Disease is a common form of food hypersensitivity that is frequently undiagnosed, causing significant morbidity. Once diagnosed, however, patients may find it difficult to stick to a gluten-free diet, since appropriate food can be expensive, difficult to obtain and unpalatable.
The diagnosis not only has implications for the patient, but, given the strong genetic linkage, also for family members. For all of these reasons, improved diagnosis and treatment of celiac disease would be of considerable benefit. That is the mission of the Celiac Disease Consortium.
The Celiac Disease Consortium(CDC) aims at establishing a firm scientific basis for the development of safer foods and more effective diagnosis, prevention and treatment of celiac disease. CDC uses functional genomics to elucidate the interaction between the disease inducing dietary proteins and the human host at molecular level. A number of strategies are being applied, ranging from genome-wide screening for susceptibility genes in patients to novel screening techniques for affected individuals.
Research projects are concentrated in three clusters:
- The Human Genomics research cluster focuses on the
identification of (aberrant)molecular pathways leading to disease development. This will lead to improved diagnostic procedures, the design of a screening programme and new leads for novel therapies.
- The Food Genomics research cluster concentrates on reduction of gluten intake. This can be done by improvingmeans for the detection of toxic gluten peptides, by novel approaches for the degradation of toxic gluten peptides in food and by the generation of rational tools to aid future breeding programmes for safer wheat strains.
- The Societal Research programme focuses on the impact and acceptance of new foods, therapeutics, diagnostics and screening tools.
