The Genetics Universe of Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis

Our appreciation of the genetic contribution to inflammatory bowel disease susceptibility has advanced substantially over the last 5 years, driven particularly by genome-wide association scanning but now complemented by a variety of other genomics technologies. We now have a much more detailed appreciation of the molecular genetic architecture of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and particularly the areas of overlap between Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) (such as Th17 pathways) and the pathways which are disease-specific (such as NOD2 and autophagy for CD and the MHC and epithelial barrier genes for UC). The next steps will be to translate the new knowledge regarding pathways which are important in IBD pathogenesis into improved therapies and preventative strategies.