The gene had been first identified earlier in 2007 by researchers at Kiel, Germany-based Christian-Albrechts University and described in a study published in Nature Genetics. What makes the CHOP study special, however, is that whereas the German study involved adult patients with Crohn's, the new research examined children.
According to CHOP researcher Dr. Hakon Hakonarson, there are two advantages to studying diseases in children. First, early onset of a disease is likely to be more strongly influenced by genetics because confounding environmental factors have had less time to build up in children as opposed to adults. Second, studies with children open the door to the testing of parents, allowing the researchers to look at genetic transmission between generations and thereby avoiding patient stratification artifacts.
