Recent Advances in the Etiopathogenesis of Inflammatory Bowel Disease: The Role of Omics

Omics technology presents an exciting and timely opportunity to improve our understanding of the molecular etiology and pathogenesis of the group of chronic, heterogeneous, inflammatory disorders that comprise inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Interest in the use of omics in the biomedical and clinical research communities is gaining pace due to its potential to make huge strides in our understanding of IBD causality, and pathology. Omics-related research also has applicability for biomarker discovery and the development of individualized treatments for patients, termed 'precision medicine'. This review will evaluate the omics analyses that have been performed in the context of IBD, with a focus on the significance of multi-omics IBD studies and the bioinformatic integration of omics data. Such an approach has the potential to provide a comprehensive analysis of the major determinants of IBD. The translation of omics data into individualized therapy will also be addressed. Plain Language Summary Major progress in understanding the changes that underlie inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) has been achieved; however, the key molecular changes in IBD that could be targeted for better treatments are undefined. This article reviews the latest IBD research on new high-throughput technologies called 'omics', which are measurements and analyses of large numbers of molecules from patients and healthy subjects. Omics data have the potential to dramatically improve therapy by providing new information to tailor highly specific treatments to individual patients with IBD.