Coeliac UK has announced granting funding for over £300,000's worth of research projects to take place over the next three years.

£143,00 is to go to a team from Cardiff and Sheffield to research neurological symptoms (mood, depression, behaviour etc) of celiac disease in people who may have none the common bowel and gastroenterological symptoms. They will use new biomarkers (transglutaminase 6 auto antibodies) in the blood to identify those patients earlier the course of the disease and, hopefully, those who might develop neurological symptoms. Using a brain imaging technique (Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy) they also hope to identify cases of celiac disease amongst those with neurological problems

Another £143,000 goes to Queen Mary College, London for work on new genetic techniques to be used to identify those genes most likely to cause coeliac disease rather than those simply associated with the condition. 8,000 coeliac patient genetic samples will be analysed and compared with those from 8,000 people without the condition.

A final £14,000 to Sheffield's Royal Hallamshire Hospital to focus on diagnosing coeliac disease in patients who have non specific gut symptoms. They propose taking a simple and quick blood test for coeliac disease (the Biocard pin prick test) in a sample group of patients attending the hospital for an endoscopy appointment but for whom coeliac disease hadn't currently been suspected.

More research on the management of coeliac disease

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