Cisca Wijmenga – ‘Genetics is much more than a simple four-letter code’

Genetics is incredibly interesting! One tiny building block in a human body can be responsible for so many things. I find that very exciting and fascinating, particularly because we keep finding more. Genetics is much more than a simple four-letter code; there’s a lot hidden in these codes.  

Many inflammatory diseases have similar molecular bases even though the diseases themselves are very different. A slightly permeable colon, for example, may cause various diseases. My research focuses inter alia on the role of the colon barrier in the occurrence of inflammatory diseases such as coeliac disease, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease. Coeliac disease is my ‘baby’; it is a disease that has so far been relatively underexplored. 

I particularly hope that this research will give us a better understanding of why coeliac disease occurs. As soon as you know the cause, you can start to examine new ways of fighting the symptoms other than a gluten-free diet, which interferes strongly in a patient's life. 

A better understanding of genes also enables the development of tests that may help the early discovery of certain diseases that are now often not recognized until a later stage because the symptoms are vague, for example coeliac disease. In the future we might even be able to prevent the disease by intervening at an early stage. However, in this type of research you can only take small steps at a time, so you have to be patient.