The intestinal epithelium lines our intestine. It takes up nutrients and water, and protects us from infection. Our intestinal epithelium gets renewd every 3 days by stem cells. In inflammatory bowel disease, the intestinal epithelium is damaged, leading to chronic inflammation. We work on understanding how to support epithelial repair to help patients with inflammatory bowel disease.
Impact
Seven million patients worldwide suffer from inflammatory bowel disease, a chronic disease with no cure. Patients have to live with the consequences of the disease and treatment for the rest of their lives, and many become resistant to existing treatments. By studying epithelial repair, we aim to identify new therapies for inflammatory bowel disease.
reNEW research
We are currently analyzing how the intestinal epithelium senses intestinal inflammation to induce appropriate intestinal repair mechanisms.
Image description
The picture shows part of a thin cross-section of the healthy mouse colon.
Credits
Annika Hausmann, Jensen lab, reNEW Copenhagen.