Aims and objectives

As the Medical Section, Dept. of Gastroenterology is a regional Centre for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), our primary aims and ambitions are to optimise diagnosis and management of patients suffering from these chronic intestinal disorders through increased understanding of the pathogenesis of IBD. Further, the Surgical Section hosts the Centre for Perioperative Optimisation where the overall aim is to optimise perioperative outcome for the general surgical patient. 

Focus areas

Focus areas in Medical Section:

1) To reveal the importance of genetics for the clinical course of IBD.

2) To optimise and improve treatment with conventional immunomodulators and established biologic agents, and finally

3) To develop a stem cell based therapeutic technique to re-establish a disrupted mucosal barrier of the inflamed intestine among patients with IBD.

Surgical Section:

Hernia repair, treatment of peritonitis, effects of melatonin in the perioperative setting as well as advanced endoscopy procedures is prioritized. However, upcoming focus areas include registry based evaluation of surgical outcomes in order to develop personalized surgery for a long list of surgical diseases. 

Disciplines, methods and tools

Standard laboratory techniques including ELISA, PCR, Western blotting, and flow cytometry are applied together with isolation and culturing of human intestinal stem cells. Further, observational cohort studies utilising a biobank with material from all IBD patients treated with biologic agents is performed with international collaborators. Thus, the research is including registry-based methods, which is expected to develop further in the years to come.