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United European Gastroenterology Research Prize Awardee 2018 – Cisca Wijmenga

Cisca Wijmenga is awarded the United European Gastroenterology (UEG) Research Prize 2018 for her outstanding work in coeliac disease and her new research project: ‘A coeliac mucosal barrier-on-chip model to investigate its role in initiation of coeliac disease’. During the past 20 years, Cisca Wijmenga has devoted her career to identifying novel genetic factors that underlie coeliac disease. She was the first to recognise the power of case-control-based genome-wide association studies and the genetic overlap between autoimmune diseases, which truly revolutionised the field. Her work is interdisciplinary and includes genetics, epidemiology, immunology, computational biology and bioinformatics. Cisca explains, ‘The reason I wanted to start investigating the genetics of coeliac disease was to contribute to a better life for patients and moving forward I hope that my work will contribute to that’. Each year, UEG awards E100,000 to an individual who has shown excellence in basic science, translational or clinical research. Through this award, UEG supports the future of a specific scientific research project from early stage to successful conclusion. The 2018 award will support Cisca to continue her work on the development of a coeliac mucosal barrier-on-chip model and her investigation into how triggering nutritional, viral and microbial factors affects barrier integrity and cytokine production, and whether both epithelial cells and intraepithelial cells, or only one of these cell types, contribute to the mucosal immune response. ‘Over the past 20 years our understanding of the role of human leukocyte antigens in coeliac disease pathogenesis has been improved substantially’, Cisca comments, adding: