A Spatially Functional Atlas of the Healing Intestinal Barrier: Implications for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), encompassing Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, represents a global health challenge with no known cure. Current therapeutic paradigms focus primarily on suppressing inflammation, yet over 40% of patients fail to achieve clinical remission. This project proposes a shift toward mucosal healing, the active process of tissue regeneration, as a superior therapeutic target. By utilizing cutting-edge spatial biology technologies and computational pipelines, combined with human material and animal models, we aim to generate a high-resolution "Spatially Functional Atlas" of the healing intestine. Using non-commercially available technologies, this work will map host-microbiota interactions in situ, providing a blueprint for the next generation of non-immunosuppressive IBD treatments.