About

 

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The Centre for Digestive and Gut Health (CDGH) aims to bring together like minded scientists and clinicians who recognise that the human microbiome is an exciting new frontier in human biology.

Under the leadership of Professor Jeremy Nicholson, the Centre is a partnership between CSM, Hepatology and the Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI) and bridges other departments and faculties, including St Mark’s.  

It brings together expertise in microbiology, gastrointestinal surgery, gastroenterology, hepatology, nutrition and computational and systems medicine. The Centre is based in the QEQM building on the St Mary’s Hospital Campus and comprises multiple senior investigators in many disciplines. All aspects of liver and GI disease are covered within the Centre and there is considerable expertise in genomics, proteomics, metabonomics, microbiomics and immunology.  

In recent years we have begun to realise that the collection of microbes which live in and on us are not just passengers, but key components in the day to day functioning and development of mammalian systems. We now understand that human beings have co-evolved a requirement for the microbiome and that we may not be able to function properly when we alter it, either intentionally or unintentionally. The microbiome has been linked to a significant set of health parameters and also disease states, such as colorectal cancer (CRC), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), liver inflammation, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and behavioural disorders such as autism. At the centre we are at the forefront of developing integrated models of the microbiome-host interactions with a strong aim of translating these into clinical practice.