Prof Matt Brown published in Nature Genetics Journal

Congratulations to TRI based QUT researcher Professor Matt Brown for the paper "Analysis of five chronic inflammatory diseases identifies 27 new associations and highlights disease-specific patterns at shared loci" published this week in Nature Genetics Journal.

We simultaneously investigated the genetic landscape of ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn's disease, psoriasis, primary sclerosing cholangitis and ulcerative colitis to investigate pleiotropy and the relationship between these clinically related diseases.

> Click here to read the Abstract

With conditions like Chron's disease, psoriasis and colitis on the rise the findings in this latest study could lead to significant advancements in the treatment and reduction of symptoms for patients.

The research has caught the attention of mainstream media with Gizmodo picking up the story earlier this week. It is estimated that the diseases linked by these genes are present in about 3% of the population and until now, we haven't understood the genetic link.

“These diseases affect about three per cent of the world’s population, and commonly occur together in families and in individuals. The big question has been whether this is due to shared environmental risk factors, or due to shared genes and now we believe we have the answer,” said Professor Matthew Brown, from QUT’s Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, and co-author of the study.

“The research has conclusively demonstrated these conditions occur together mostly because they share similar genetic backgrounds.

“Studying nearly 86,000 subjects from 26 countries, our researchers identified 244 genetic variants which control whether or not people develop these conditions, a large proportion of which were completely new findings.

David Ellinghaus, Luke Jostins, Sarah L Spain, Adrian Cortes, Jörn Bethune, Buhm Han, Yu Rang Park, Soumya Raychaudhuri, Jennie G Pouget,Matthias  Hübenthal, Trine Folseraas, Yunpeng Wang, Tonu Esko, Andres Metspalu, Harm-Jan Westra, Lude Franke, Tune H Pers, Rinse K Weersma, Valerie Collij, Mauro D'Amato, Jonas Halfvarson, Anders Boeck Jensen,Wolfgang Lieb,  Franziska Degenhardt, Andreas J Forstner et al.

Received - 28 July 2015
Accepted - 19 February 2016
Published online - 14 March 2016

> the Abstract in nature genetics

> QUT official Media Release

> NZ Doctor Nature Genetics Media Release

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