Monday, April 9, 2012

Make IBD a thing of the Past

Right now, 1 in 200 Americans suffer with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis – and this year the number of new diagnoses will rise most rapidly among children. All of these patients dream of a future free of these debilitating diseases. That's why I hope I can count on you to make a generous gift to the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America today – to help us make their dream a reality. Your support furthers patient support programs and key research programs such as: Genetics Initiative, a collaborative, multi-center and cross-disciplinary project to provide tools that can be used to guide the development of new treatments for IBD, define patient subsets who may respond to specific treatments, and to measure the impact of treatments in patients. Microbiome Initiative, a project investigating the bacterial and viral species, genes and metabolic products in our digestive tracts. The Initiative is developing techniques to analyze large data sets so that all IBD investigators can utilize the results. Ultimately, the Microbiome Initiative hopes to identify bacteria and fungi that are different between IBD patients and non-patients and target them for new therapies. Pediatric Network, which seeks to provide pediatric-specific information through a large-scale multi-center collaborative effort to illustrate how risk factors present in children with IBD influence the natural history of the disease. At CCFA, we invest our dollars wisely, funding only the best IBD research in the world and implementing a peer-review process that ensures that only the most promising grant applications are chosen. But I don’t have to tell you that there’s much more work to be done. Please make your gift to CCFA today. Your generosity will benefit millions of people all over the world by helping us move closer to the day that these diseases are a thing of the past. Thank you for your support, Richard J. Geswell President This year, too many men and women – and even more children – will find out that they have Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis. Help us map out a future free of these diseases. Renew Now Sidebar Photo P.S. Wouldn't it be great if together we could fund even more brilliant scientists in the coming year? By making a gift to CCFA, you will support finding better treatments and a cure. Donate PS Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America | www.ccfa.org 888.MY.GUT.PAIN (888.694.8872)