- About
- Strategic Plan
- Structure
- Governance
- Scientific divisions
- ACRF Cancer Biology and Stem Cells
- ACRF Chemical Biology
- Advanced Technology and Biology
- Bioinformatics
- Blood Cells and Blood Cancer
- Clinical Translation
- Epigenetics and Development
- Immunology
- Infectious Diseases and Immune Defence
- Inflammation
- Personalised Oncology
- Population Health and Immunity
- Structural Biology
- Ubiquitin Signalling
- Laboratory operations
- Funding
- Annual reports
- Human research ethics
- Scientific integrity
- Institute life
- Career opportunities
- Business Development
- Collaborators
- Suppliers
- Publications repository
- Awards
- Discoveries
- Centenary 2015
- History
- Contact us
- Research
- Diseases
- Cancer
- Development and ageing
- Immune health and infection
- Research fields
- Research technologies
- Research centres
- People
- Alistair Brown
- Anne-Laure Puaux
- Assoc Prof Joanna Groom
- Associate Profesor Ian Majewski
- Associate Professor Aaron Jex
- Associate Professor Andrew Webb
- Associate Professor Chris Tonkin
- Associate Professor Daniel Gray
- Associate Professor Diana Hansen
- Associate Professor Edwin Hawkins
- Associate Professor Ethan Goddard-Borger
- Associate Professor Gemma Kelly
- Associate Professor Grant Dewson
- Associate Professor Isabelle Lucet
- Associate Professor James Vince
- Associate Professor Jason Tye-Din
- Associate Professor Jeanne Tie
- Associate Professor Jeff Babon
- Associate Professor Joan Heath
- Associate Professor John Wentworth
- Associate Professor Justin Boddey
- Associate Professor Kate Sutherland
- Associate Professor Marie-Liesse Asselin-Labat
- Associate Professor Matthew Ritchie
- Associate Professor Melissa Call
- Associate Professor Melissa Davis
- Associate Professor Misty Jenkins
- Associate Professor Nawaf Yassi
- Associate Professor Oliver Sieber
- Associate Professor Peter Czabotar
- Associate Professor Rachel Wong
- Associate Professor Rhys Allan
- Associate Professor Rosie Watson
- Associate Professor Ruth Kluck
- Associate Professor Sandra Nicholson
- Associate Professor Seth Masters
- Associate Professor Sumitra Ananda
- Associate Professor Tim Thomas
- Associate Professor Tracy Putoczki
- Chela Niall
- Deborah Carr
- Dr Alisa Glukhova
- Dr Anna Coussens
- Dr Ashley Ng
- Dr Belinda Phipson
- Dr Ben Tran
- Dr Bernhard Lechtenberg
- Dr Brad Sleebs
- Dr Drew Berry
- Dr Gwo Yaw Ho
- Dr Hamish King
- Dr Hui-Li Wong
- Dr Jacqui Gulbis
- Dr Jim Whittle
- Dr Kelly Rogers
- Dr Lucy Gately
- Dr Margaret Lee
- Dr Mary Ann Anderson
- Dr Maryam Rashidi
- Dr Matthew Call
- Dr Nadia Davidson
- Dr Nadia Kershaw
- Dr Philippe Bouillet
- Dr Rebecca Feltham
- Dr Rory Bowden
- Dr Samir Taoudi
- Dr Sarah Best
- Dr Saskia Freytag
- Dr Shabih Shakeel
- Dr Shalin Naik
- Dr Sheau Wen Lok
- Dr Stephin Vervoort
- Dr Yunshun Chen
- Guillaume Lessene
- Helene Martin
- Joh Kirby
- Kaye Wycherley
- Keely Bumsted O'Brien
- Mr Mark Eaton
- Mr Simon Monard
- Mr Steve Droste
- Ms Carolyn MacDonald
- Professor Alan Cowman
- Professor Andreas Strasser
- Professor Andrew Lew
- Professor Andrew Roberts
- Professor Anne Voss
- Professor Clare Scott
- Professor David Huang
- Professor David Komander
- Professor David Vaux
- Professor Doug Hilton
- Professor Geoff Lindeman
- Professor Gordon Smyth
- Professor Ian Wicks
- Professor Ivo Mueller
- Professor James McCarthy
- Professor James Murphy
- Professor Jane Visvader
- Professor Jerry Adams
- Professor John Silke
- Professor Ken Shortman
- Professor Leanne Robinson
- Professor Leonard C Harrison
- Professor Lynn Corcoran
- Professor Marc Pellegrini
- Professor Marco Herold
- Professor Marnie Blewitt
- Professor Melanie Bahlo
- Professor Mike Lawrence
- Professor Nicos Nicola
- Professor Peter Colman
- Professor Peter Gibbs
- Professor Phil Hodgkin
- Professor Sant-Rayn Pasricha
- Professor Stephen Nutt
- Professor Suzanne Cory
- Professor Terry Speed
- Professor Tony Papenfuss
- Professor Wai-Hong Tham
- Professor Warren Alexander
- Diseases
- Education
- PhD
- Honours
- Masters
- Clinician-scientist training
- Undergraduate
- Student research projects
- A new regulator of 'stemness' to create dendritic cell factories for immunotherapy
- Advanced imaging interrogation of pathogen induced NETosis
- Cancer driver deserts
- Cryo-electron microscopy of Wnt signalling complexes
- Deciphering the heterogeneity of breast cancer at the epigenetic and genetic levels
- Developing drugs to block malaria transmission
- Developing new computational tools for CRISPR genomics to advance cancer research
- Developing novel antibody-based methods for regulating apoptotic cell death
- Discovering novel paradigms to cure viral and bacterial infections
- Discovery and targeting of novel regulators of transcription
- Dissecting host cell invasion by the diarrhoeal pathogen Cryptosporidium
- Do membrane forces govern assembly of the deadly apoptotic pore?
- Doublecortin-like kinases, drug targets in cancer and neurological disorders
- E3 ubiquitin ligases in neurodegeneration, autoinflammation and cancer
- Engineering improved CAR-T cell therapies
- Epigenetic biomarkers of tuberculosis infection
- Exploiting cell death pathways in regulatory T cells for cancer immunotherapy
- Finding treatments for chromatin disorders of intellectual disability
- Functional epigenomics in human B cells
- Genomic rearrangement detection with third generation sequencing technology
- How does DNA damage shape disease susceptibility over a lifetime?
- How does DNA hypermutation shape the development of solid tumours?
- How platelets prevent neonatal stroke
- Human lung protective immunity to tuberculosis
- Interaction with Toxoplasma parasites and the brain
- Interactions between tumour cells and their microenvironment in non-small cell lung cancer
- Investigating the role of dysregulated Tom40 in neurodegeneration
- Investigating the role of mutant p53 in cancer
- Lupus: proteasome inhibitors and inflammation
- Machine learning methods for somatic genome rearrangement detection
- Malaria: going bananas for sex
- Measurements of malaria parasite and erythrocyte membrane interactions using cutting-edge microscopy
- Measuring susceptibility of cancer cells to BH3-mimetics
- Minimising rheumatic adverse events of checkpoint inhibitor cancer therapy
- Mutational signatures of structural variation
- Naturally acquired immune response to malaria parasites
- Predicting the effect of non-coding structural variants in cancer
- Revealing the epigenetic origins of immune disease
- Reversing antimalarial resistance in human malaria parasites
- Structural and functional analysis of DNA repair complexes
- Targeting human infective coronaviruses using alpaca antibodies
- Towards targeting altered glial biology in high-grade brain cancers
- Uncovering the real impact of persistent malaria infections
- Understanding Plasmodium falciparum invasion of red blood cells
- Understanding how malaria parasites sabotage acquisition of immunity
- Understanding malaria infection dynamics
- Understanding the mechanism of type I cytokine receptor activation
- Unveiling the heterogeneity of small cell lung cancer
- Using alpaca antibodies to understand malaria invasion and transmission
- Using combination immunotherapy to tackle heterogeneous brain tumours
- Using intravital microscopy for immunotherapy against brain tumours
- Using nanobodies to cross the blood brain barrier for drug delivery
- Using structural biology to understand programmed cell death
- School resources
- Frequently asked questions
- Student profiles
- Abebe Fola
- Andrew Baldi
- Anna Gabrielyan
- Bridget Dorizzi
- Casey Ah-Cann
- Catia Pierotti
- Emma Nolan
- Huon Wong
- Jing Deng
- Joy Liu
- Kaiseal Sarson-Lawrence
- Komal Patel
- Lilly Backshell
- Megan Kent
- Naomi Jones
- Rebecca Delconte
- Roberto Bonelli
- Rune Larsen
- Runyu Mao
- Sarah Garner
- Simona Seizova
- Wayne Cawthorne
- Wil Lehmann
- Miles Horton
- Alexandra Gurzau
- Student achievements
- Student association
- Learning Hub
- News
- Donate
- Online donation
- Ways to support
- Support outcomes
- Supporter stories
- Rotarians against breast cancer
- A partnership to improve treatments for cancer patients
- 20 years of cancer research support from the Helpman family
- A generous gift from a cancer survivor
- A gift to support excellence in Australian medical research
- An enduring friendship
- Anonymous donor helps bridge the 'valley of death'
- Renewed support for HIV eradication project
- Searching for solutions to muscular dystrophy
- Supporting research into better treatments for colon cancer
- Taking a single cell focus with the DROP-seq
- WEHI.TV
Inflammatory bowel disease

Inflammatory bowel disease occurs when parts of the digestive tract become damaged by prolonged inflammation. The two most common types, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, are serious chronic illnesses with no known cause. Our research into the causes of inflammation aims to reveal new treatments for inflammatory bowel disease.
Inflammatory bowel disease research at WEHI
Prolonged inflammation in the digestive tract can lead to significant digestive symptoms and other medical problems. Our researchers are studying:
- The cause of intestinal inflammation in inflammatory bowel disease.
- The molecules that initiate and prolong inflammation.
- How inflammation can be turned off to treat Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis
What is inflammatory bowel disease?
Inflammatory bowel disease is a condition in which the lining of the digestive tract becomes inflamed and damaged.
The two most common types of inflammatory bowel disease are:
- Ulcerative colitis, in which inflammation is limited to the surface layers of the large bowel (colon).
- Crohn’s disease, which can occur anywhere in the digestive tract from the mouth to the anus, and which inflames the entire thickness of the intestinal wall.
Some people are diagnosed with ‘indeterminate colitis’, when their inflammatory bowel disease cannot be distinguished between ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.
Symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease
The most common symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease are:
- Diarrhoea, often including blood or mucous
- Abdominal pain
- Loss of appetite
- Tiredness
- Fever
- Weight loss
Symptoms can come and go as the disease can flare unpredictably. Sometimes symptoms are severe enough to require treatment in hospital.
Damage to the intestinal wall leads to ulceration and bleeding. People with Crohn’s disease can also experience:
- Narrowing (strictures) of the bowel
- Breaks (perforation) of the bowel
- Tunnels between sections of the bowel or other organs (fistulae)
These complications require medical and sometimes surgical treatment.
In the long-term, people with inflammatory bowel disease are at elevated risk of bowel cancer.
The inflammation in Crohn’s disease and colitis is not limited to the intestine. People often experience problems caused by inflammation in other organs including their eyes, skin, liver and joints.
Australia has one of the highest rates of inflammatory bowel disease in the world, with nearly 85,000 Australians affected. Most people are diagnosed as young adults. There is often a delay between the start of symptoms and a medical diagnosis.
For more information about inflammatory bowel disease, please visit Crohn’s and Colitis Australia.
What causes Crohn’s disease?
Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are inflammatory conditions. This means they are caused by the body’s immune system. Inflammation can protect the body from invading microbes. However in inflammatory bowel disease, unnecessary inflammation is triggered. It continues for long enough to cause damage to the digestive tract.
Inflammatory bowel disease risk factors
It is hard to predict who will develop inflammatory bowel disease. Both genetic and environmental factors are important contributors to inflammatory bowel disease. These probably interact with an unknown ‘trigger’ to cause abnormal inflammation in the digestive tract.
Inflammatory bowel disease is more common in people who are relatives of someone with the condition. Specific genetic changes have been found that increase the risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease.
Crohn’s disease can occur following an infectious gastroenteritis. It is possible that the immune response protecting against infection ends up damaging the intestine. Some research suggests Crohn’s disease may be triggered by the bacterium Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (related to the bacterium that causes tuberculosis).
Environmental and lifestyle influences such as tobacco use and diet as well as alteration in the bacterial composition of the bowel, called the microbiome, also have an effect on the development of Crohn’s disease. Smoking more than doubles the risk of Crohn’s disease.
There is some evidence that living in urban or industrialised areas may increase Crohn’s disease risk, possibly due to differences in diet, gut microbes or the effect of pollution.
How is inflammatory bowel disease treated?
For most people, inflammatory bowel diseases are lifelong illnesses. Treatments aim to reduce inflammation and improve symptoms to enable a good quality of life.
For people with severe ulcerative colitis, the entire large bowel can be surgically removed. This cures the disease, but other health issues can remain. Crohn’s disease cannot be cured.
Treatments for people with inflammatory bowel disease may include:
- Medications, such as steroids, to reduce inflammation
- ‘Biologic’ medications that block the specific molecules that allow inflammation to occur
- Antibiotics
- Surgery to remove areas of severe inflammation, or to repair damage
Dietary modification is sometimes recommended for people with inflammatory bowel disease. Nutritional deficiencies are common, especially when inflammation is present, so adequate nutrition is important.
Researchers:
Super Content:
Researchers have uncovered clues in the immune system that reveal how the balance of ‘good’ gut bacteria is maintained.
The information could help in the prevention and treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Our research has revealed the structure of a protein that triggers a form of programmed cell death called necroptosis
A discovery opens the door for potential new treatments for inflammatory disease such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and psoriasis.
Our researchers discovered a type of cell death called necroptosis could be the underlying cause of inflammatory disease.