Name: What’s Your Gut Telling You? JIA and the Gut Microbiome Connection
Start: 2022-11-29T16:30:00+00:00
End: 2022-11-29T18:30:00+00:00
Location: Zoom

Register Today!

Did you know that around 70% of our body’s immune cells are located in the gut? This has caused scientists to pay special attention to the 100 trillion+ microorganisms living in the gut when trying to answer every parent’s rightful question, why did my child develop arthritis? And while research has yet to determine the exact cause of JIA (that’s the Idiopathic part), we do know that the microbiome plays a key role in how our immune system functions and overall health.

So what happens when there is a presence of undesirable microbes? Is it possible that they could trigger an immune self-targeting of the joints (i.e. arthritis)? Could disturbances to the microbiome make JIA symptoms worse?

Join Kelsey Thompson, Research Associate in the Huttenhower Laboratory at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Department of Biostatistics as she shares her research into JIA and the Gut Microbiome. You’ll hear about how she used DNA in stool samples (that’s right, poop!) to identify potential microbial culprits in kids with JIA, and how research into the microbiome-JIA connection may even open doors to new treatment or prevention strategies in the future.

In this session you’ll also learn:
• about treatment that may allow the good microbes in the gut to come back
• how gut microbes rapidly change with age
• how changes in gut microbes affect both the function of the gut (i.e. decreased nutrient availability and vitamins) and inflammatory disease symptoms.

As always, this session will be offered live in both English and French! Bring your question for our live Q+A!

Session Speakers

Kelsey Thompson

Research Associate @Huttenhower Laboratory at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Department of Biostatistics

Kelsey Thompson is a Research Associate in the Huttenhower Laboratory at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Department of Biostatistics, and an affiliate with the Broad Institute. Kelsey has a Ph.D. in Environmental Toxicology from Texas Tech University and a B.S. in Marine Science from the University of New England. Kelsey is currently focusing on the role of the gut microbiome in systemic inflammation, in the context of inflammatory arthritis. This includes investigating communities’ taxonomy and function and the ecological dynamics of communities. She has also been involved in a myriad of other projects while with the Huttenhower group, including the role of dietary polyphenols in gut composition, the impact of exposure to mixtures of toxicants, and the gut microbiome in colorectal cancer. You can learn more about Kelsey’s work here.

Cassie Porte

Youth Speaker

Tune in to hear right from Cassie herself!

Cassie was diagnosed with JIA when she was just 20 months old after waking up one morning and being unable to walk. As time passed, Cassie started to feel sick after eating certain foods and was eventually diagnosed with celiac disease. She’s excited to be speaking at our webinar to share more about her journey, diet, and what it was like growing up with both diagnoses. In the meantime, you can learn more about her experience in her recent blog post.