Research Group Dr. med. Miriam Wiestler

Welcome to the research group of Dr. med. Miriam Wiestler.

In our research projects we deal with various aspects of therapy optimization, as well as the special interaction between nutrition, psychosocial factors and the course of the disease in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Another focus of the working group is the investigation of gender-specific aspects in these patients.

IBD, composed of the two main clinical phenotypes, ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD), are characterized by recurrent, chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. Controlling inflammatory activity and achieving a stable remission of the disease plays a major role in today's therapy in order to prevent structural intestinal changes and improve the quality of life of IBD patients. Medical treatments for IBD have been increasingly revolutionized over the last decade, but even newer therapeutic methods such as biologic therapies typically lead to lasting clinical remission in no more than 50% of patients. Today, we believe that IBD results from the complex interplay of westernized, lifestyle-associated environmental factors and genetic predispositions that lead to uncontrolled immune responses against luminal trigger factors.

Selected current research projects

  • SIGMOID:

    With the “SIGMOID” study, we wish to identify novel, predictive biomarkers regarding treatment response in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) under different therapeutic regimens using novel molecular techniques e.g. sc RNA sequencing and Multi-Omic approaches. In the future, this should be able to guide individualized, optimized therapy regimes in IBD patient care and thus personalize and improve patient care globally. For this purpose, innovative analysis techniques are used in cooperation with Prof. Yang Li's research group at the Center for Individualized Infection Medicine (CiiM). This study is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the Clinician Scientist Program PRACTIS.

  • NOURISHED:

    With the “NOURISHED” study, we are currently running a cross-sectional study on IBD patients and healthy controls to investigate the connection between nutritional behaviour, the intestinal microbiome and its metabolic activity. We hope to generate a deeper understanding of disorders within the microbiome-metabolome axis in IBD, including the identification of potential diagnostic and, above all, (nutritional) therapeutic approaches.

  • DORO:

    The “DORO” study is an anonymized, web-based cross-sectional survey on sex-specific differences in the diagnosis of IBD and the further course of therapy. Study participation is open to all interested IBD patients throughout Germany via IBD focus centers and practicing gastroenterologists. If you are interested in supporting us with patient recruitment, please write to us.

Further Information

   

   

Our team

In the following drop-down boxes you will find an overview of our employees. If you have any further questions about our team, please feel free to contact us at any time.

   

Publications

In the following drop-down boxes you will find an overview of our publications. If you have any further questions about our clinical and scientific work, you can contact us at any time.

Publications at PubMed