Prize for Innsbruck researchers – tirol.ORF.at
The 36-year-old gastroenterologist conducts research at the University Clinic for Internal Medicine I on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
With the ERC Starting Grants, successful young researchers are provided with highly endowed project budgets. The funding is considered a special award for outstanding scientists across Europe.
Already the second prize for Med-Uni Innsbruck
Timon Adolph is the second researcher at the Medical University of Innsbruck to be awarded a Starting Grant from the ERC. The first EU funding of this Art for the Medicine at the University of Innsbruck went to Arthur Kaser, who is also a gastroenterologist and was appointed to the University of Cambridge in 2011. “The top level of research on inflammatory biology of the intestine established by clinic director Herbert Tilg in Innsbruck seems to be excellently equipped for prestigious international awards. Both Timon Adolph and Arthur Kas studied medicine here in Innsbruck and researched chronic inflammatory diseases together, ”says Christine Bandlow, Vice Rector for Research and International Affairs at Innsbruck University of Medicine, emphasizing the excellence of this research area.
Intestinal inflammation increases sharply
The focus of the scientist Timon Adolph are inflammatory processes in the intestine, including those molecular mechanisms that lead to inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease (Crohn’s disease, CD) and ulcerative colitis. The incidence of inflammatory bowel disease has risen sharply in recent years. Around 1.6 million people in Europe suffer from chronic inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn’s disease, 27,000 of whom live in Austria. Around 300 identified genetic variants that influence the risk of developing IBD can only explain a small proportion of the diseases.
Eating habits as the cause
Migration studies suggest that the Western diet plays a role in the development of inflammatory bowel disease. The complex composition of the diet proves to be a major challenge for research into the causes. “While searching for inflammatory food components, we were able to explain in the laboratory that multiple fatty acids, which often occur in meat, various oils and eggs, trigger a Crohn-like inflammation in mice,” explains Timon Adolph.
With his team, he has put together a diet that corresponds to the composition of a western diet and, in addition to n fatty acids, also contains multiple fatty acids (PUFAs), some of which are fortified in foods or taken as dietary supplements. “The inflammatory signals are generated by intestinal epithelial cells, the intestinal barrier, and controlled by the antioxidant enzyme GPX4 (glutathione peroxidase 4). The activity of GPX4, which protects intestinal epithelial cells from oxidative stress and membrane lipids and thus prevents the triggering of an inflammatory response, is inhibited by repeated fatty acids. We can observe this in Crohn’s disease patients ”, Timon Adolph explains the findings in detail.
Attempts are now evaluated
The analyzes in the animal model are now to be extended to humans, for example in studies on stem cell organoids and two independent patient cohorts. These studies investigate how multiple fatty acids die, the development of intestinal inflammation and the course of the disease in Crohn’s disease patients. Timon Adolph’s research project “Metabolic Gut Inflammation in Crohn’s Disease”, which will be funded by the EU with 1.5 million euros over the next five years, aims to develop new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of this disease.
Timon Adolph’s career
Timon Adolph was born in 1985 in Kirchen / Sieg, Germany, and studied medicine at the Medical University of Innsbruck, where he did research in Arthur Kaser’s group during his studies. After completing his medical degree, he completed a PhD at Cambridge University in England. Since 2014, the award-winning scientist has been researching in the gastroenterological laboratory of the University Clinic for Internal Medicine I.