ASU teams up with Phoenix Children’s to help kids with painful inflammatory bowel diseases
Graphic by Richard Holland/ASU
About 2.7 million people in the U.S. live with inflammatory bowel diseases, which cause long-term inflammation in the digestive system. The number of children diagnosed with these conditions, like Crohn’s disease, is rising faster than in adults, but the reasons for the increase are puzzling.
Crohn’s disease, a type of IBD, can be life-changing, especially for young people. Symptoms including weight loss, fatigue, anemia and stomach pain can affect kids’ growth and daily lives.
Now, researchers from Arizona State University and Phoenix Children’s are teaming up to better understand IBD in children. Their latest study, "Multiomics-Based Profiling of the Fecal Microbiome Reveals Potential Disease-Specific Signatures in Pediatric IBD," looks at what’s happening inside the gut to help doctors find faster, less invasive ways to diagnose the disease and develop better treatments in the future.
Why this research matters
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“Some kids have to rush to the bathroom during class or miss school for treatments. It causes stress and anxiety,” explains Dr. Brad Pasternak, a pediatric gastroenterologist and medical director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinic at Phoenix Children’s. “This disease really impacts their lives. They have to manage it with medicine, diet changes and lifestyle adjustments, possibly for the rest of their lives.”
One Arizona family understands this all too well. Aaron Johnson, a father from Phoenix, says his 13-year-old son’s diagnosis of Crohn’s disease turned their lives upside down.
“It’s tough. You feel helpless as a parent,” Johnson says. “I didn’t even know what Crohn’s was. Most people just think it’s a minor stomach issue, but it’s way more serious.”
Since the diagnosis, his son has fallen from the 70th to the 30th percentile in height and weight.
“At his age, there’s a chance he might not catch up,” Johnson says.
Still, he remains hopeful.
“If we can figure out what’s different in the gut of someone with an autoimmune disease, I believe we can find a cure. That gives me hope.”
That hope is part of what’s driving the work of Todd Sandrin, who is dean of ASU’s New College, a professor who specializes in microbiology and an associated faculty member in the Biodesign Center for Health Through Microbiomes. He studies the gut microbiome, the trillions of tiny organisms that live in our digestive tract.
“Your gut has more living things in it than your entire body has cells, or even stars in the sky,” Sandrin says. “We’re learning that the microbiome is incredibly important. It might even function like an organ.”
In the study, the team didn’t just look at which bacteria were present. They used a new approach called multiomics, which analyzes what the bacteria are doing (gene activity), what chemicals they’re producing (metabolites), and how those patterns differ in kids with and without IBD.
“Just knowing which bacteria are in the gut is like looking at the outside of a car,” says Peter Jurutka, a professor of molecular biology in New College and the School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering. “With our approach, we’re able to look inside the engine to see how everything works. That helps us really understand what’s happening in the disease."
So far, the research has uncovered promising patterns. Children with IBD, especially those with ulcerative colitis, showed differences in how their gut bacteria processed nutrients and produced chemicals. Some proteins and sugar pathways were more active than usual, which could be tied to inflammation.
“Could we one day use gut bacteria as a sign, or biomarker, of a disease? That’s what we’re exploring,” Sandrin says.
Right now, diagnosing IBD in children usually involves a long list of tests, some requiring anesthesia. But this new research could lead to simple, noninvasive testing, possibly using just a stool sample.
“These differences may help us create better treatments and make diagnosis easier,” Pasternak adds.
For families like the Johnsons, breakthroughs like these can’t come soon enough.
“Knowing people are working on this and trying to make it better, it means everything,” Aaron Johnson says.
As childhood IBD continues to rise, especially in places where it used to be rare, this research offers a path forward. With more studies, better tools and the power of teamwork between doctors and scientists, the future looks brighter for kids living with these challenging conditions.
“This work is a powerful example of how microbiome science has the potential to transform health care, especially for children,” says Rosa Krajmalnik-Brown, director of the Biodesign Center for Health Through Microbiomes. “At ASU and Biodesign, we are committed to advancing research that not only deepens scientific understanding, but also leads to real diagnostic tools and better treatments for families.”
The university supports research like this as part of its ASU Health initiative, which brings together science, technology and community to improve health outcomes. By advancing cutting-edge research in areas like the microbiome, ASU is working to shape the future of medicine and create a healthier, more equitable world for all.
What they are saying
Dr. Brad Pasternak, pediatric gastroenterologist, Phoenix Children’s Hospital, research co-author:
“We want to expand this project and do a lot more samples, so the ultimate goal is finding therapeutic targets or markers that could help us identify severity of disease, and using these data to help drive therapeutics as well as diagnostics.”
Peter Jurutka, professor of molecular biology in New College and the School of Medicine and Advanced Medical Engineering, research co-author:
“As a molecular biologist, I approach this from a mechanistic standpoint. The genes that are expressed are the metatranscriptome. I study how this gene activity connects with what's happening at the protein level (metaproteomics) and the chemical level (metabolomics). These layers all work together and may reveal key molecular processes underlying gut health.”
Anita DeSantis, manager of the Microbial Biosignatures Lab, research co-author:
“Even though the mix of gut bacteria looked similar in sick and healthy kids overall, we did find that some specific bacteria were more common in kids with ulcerative colitis. That might help us figure out what’s going wrong in the disease.”
Todd Sandrin, dean of ASU’s New College and professor of microbiology, research co-author:
“What’s really exciting is that we used new tools to ask several questions at once — like which microbes are there, what can they do and what are they doing right now. That gives us a much better picture than older methods.”
Haiwei Gu, associate professor of biostatistics in ASU’s College of Health Solutions and the Biodesign Center for Health Through Microbiomes, director of the Gu Metabolomics Lab, research co-author:
“Multiomics was used in this study; it includes data from multiple layers in systems biology. Our results showed that it has great potential for IBD diagnosis and management.”
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