PUBLICATIONS

Previous studies, including those from the GEM team, have reported candidate pre-disease biomarkers associated with the future development of Crohn’s disease (CD). However, these pre-disease biomarkers have yet to be integrated in a multi-dimensional model to predict the future risk of CD in healthy individuals. Leveraging the pre-disease biomarkers discovered through the data collected in the GEM study, our research team developed an integrative multi-dimensional risk model, the GEM integrative risk score (GEM-IRS), that predicts healthy first degree relatives (FDR’s) future risk of developing CD. We subsequently validated the performance of GEM-IRS in two testing cohorts which preformed at a c-index of 0.789 in the pooled testing cohort. To date, this is the first description of an integrative risk model to assess the future risk of CD among healthy FDRs. We believe the integrative model shows the potential to risk-stratify high-risk individuals among healthy FDRs, which is the first step toward designing a primary prevention trial in CD. Lee SH, Turpin W, Espin-Garcia O, Xu W, Croitoru K; CCC GEM Project Research Consortium. Development and Validation of an Integrative Risk Score for Future Risk of Crohn's Disease in Healthy First-Degree Relatives: A Multicentre Prospective Cohort Study. Gastroenterology. 2025 Jan;168(1):150-153.e4. doi.org/10.1053/j.gastro.2024.08.021. Epub 2024 Aug 30.PMID: 39209122.