Rutgers professor with Crohn's disease uses experience to find new treatments
Crohn’s disease affects about 1.5 million Americans every year, and patients who suffer from Crohn’s pay about $18,932 per year for medical services, yet most people are not well informed about the illness.
Crohn's is defined as an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and leads to inflammation in the digestive tract lining. This creates symptoms including abdominal pain, fatigue, weight loss and malnutrition, according to the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America.
Dr. Karen Edelblum, an assistant professor in the Department of Immunity and Inflammation at the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, suffers from Crohn's disease and is currently conducting research to find new remedies for patients.
“In the past, the majority of treatments available (for Crohn's patients) depended on antibiotics, steroids and other medications that generally reduce inflammation or suppress the immune system," Edelblum said in an email. "The main problem is that not all treatments work for everyone. Further, many of these medications still suppress the immune system, which leaves patients more susceptible to infections."
The research focuses on using the normal function of the immune system to help prevent the initial events that lead to the development of Crohn's, she said.
“This is a more proactive approach to treating IBDs (compared to) current therapies focused on reducing active inflammation. We hope that this approach could be used to help patients maintain remission and prevent disease relapse," Edelblum said.
Edelblum said she has paired up with Consano, a platform that allows people to donate money directly to a specific medical research project of importance to them, to help fund her research. This forum is focused on the idea of crowdfunding, which is a form of fundraising that focuses on a large group of people generating money from others.
Molly Lindquist, founder and CEO of Consano, has been following this research project as well. Her goal for Consano is to provide transparency for patients to understand the research behind curing diseases, she said.
“I myself had breast cancer and that was the impetus for me to start Consano," Lindquist said.
Her own cancer experience allowed her to realize that patients never truly get to see what goes on behind the scenes of research funding, she said.
“What we’re excited to see from the Consano perspective is Dr. Edelblum channel that personal experience into a professional passion," Lindquist said. “Patient perspective isn’t a 100 percent at the forefront, so to have a researcher who is literally a patient is pretty much as far as the other end you can go, which is very cool to see.”
The main goal of crowdfunding is to begin a "ripple effect of impact" that begins a movement of awareness, and Edelblum is at the center of that movement, she said.
“When I was diagnosed, instead of asking 'why me?' I thought 'why not me?'," Edelblum said. “I always knew that I wanted to try to fix this problem, to contribute to finding a cure. Chronic illness is a great motivator because you wake up every day never losing sight of why you are doing your job.”
Adityaa Shukla is a School of Arts and Sciences first-year student. She is a contributing writer for The Daily Targum.
