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Beyond Celiac awards nearly $450,000 in research grants
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Beyond Celiac – a leading nonprofit supporting research in celiac disease – announced the award of two long-term grants funding an established researcher as well as a new pilot study.
“The scientific world is looking at celiac disease as part of the broader autoimmune disease spectrum, and progress is being made as a result. At Beyond Celiac, we remain committed to our mission of advancing research with an international scope and supporting scientists who study immunological diseases,” Alice Bast, CEO of Beyond Celiac, said in the press release.
Paul Klenerman, PhD, an immunologist and a professor of gastroenterology at the University of Oxford, received the Established Career Award. With this award of $100,000 for 3 years, Klenerman will focus his research on CD8 T-cells, which are more prominent in the gut of people with celiac disease.
“These cells have features which suggest they are responding to a particular, unknown signal, and acting to cause inflammation, potentially driving celiac disease,” Klenerman said in the release. “We do not yet fully know what activates them, how they cause damage and how they can be regulated.”
Jocelyn Silvester, MD, director of research at the Celiac Disease Program at Children’s Hospital, Boston, received the Pilot and Feasibility Award, which offers $80,000 for 2 years. She will use this grant to study RNA via biopsies to identify genes connected to celiac disease inflammation.
Disclosures: Bast is employed by Beyond Celiac.