A biopsy and blood based molecular biomarker of inflammation in inflammatory bowel disease

What is already known about this subject? Treatment targets in inflammatory bowel disease are moving towards deeper levels of remission, from clinical to endoscopic and recently, histologic normalizations. How ‘deep’ should we go for long term disease control is an on-going question. What this study adds? Current measurements of IBD activity are likely under-representing persistent inflammation at the molecular level which can be expressed using biopsy and blood scores. How this study might affect research, practice or policy? Our work lays a platform for augmenting current clinical practices associated with patient disease monitoring, stratification and therapeutic response management through the use of molecular scores of inflammation based on expression levels of specific genes measured in either mucosal biopsies or non-invasively, in circulating blood RNA.