16 Dec 2015 --- It's estimated that as many as 1,000,000 Americans suffer from inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, which cause mild to severe symptoms that at best can be managed and at worst can lead to life-threatening complications. While abnormal immune responses are largely responsible for these diseases, issues relating to gut microbiome, intestinal epithelial cells, immune components and the gut's rhythmic peristalsis motions can also contribute to and exacerbate symptoms. But until now, scientists have been hard-pressed to develop new therapies for treating IBDs due to their inability to replicate the human gut microenvironment in the laboratory.
