A research team based at an Oxford hospital has received a £45,000 grant to pinpoint the genes linked to bowel disease.
Prof Derek Jewell, of the department of gastroenterology at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Headington, is now looking at how a person's genes can make them more susceptible to colitis or Crohn's disease.
Both conditions are potentially life-threatening, and are often diagnosed in teenagers and young adults. They can leave patients feeling feverish and in severe pain.
More than 150,000 people in the UK suffer from the diseases, known collectively as inflammatory bowel disease, and more than 8,000 new cases are diagnosed every year.
Prof Jewell and his team have been awarded the research grant from the National Association for Colitis and Crohn's Disease to fund their studies for a year.
He said: "People with Crohn's Disease are known to have a genetic susceptibility that, in some way, interacts with unknown factors in the environment to cause chronic inflammation of the intestine."
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