A team from the Institute for Health Research and Innovation (i3S) of the University of Porto has in clinical trial a solution that would allow “prevention approaches” to Crohn’s disease, Lusa today told researcher Salome Pinho.
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07/07/2026
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Lusa
“ Athe evidence that we accumulated over the years [of investigation] allowed us to identify a molecule with immunomodulatory properties, i.e., they control very early states of the transition from health to intestinal inflammation, and we made the leap to clinical practice ", said the researcher who leads the Health Research and Innovation team (i3S) of the University of Porto.
The researcher spoke to Lusa on the margins of a visit by the President of the Republic, António José Seguro, to i3S, which celebrates 10 years this year.
Seguro talked to Salomé Pinho about this project, having praised him in his speech at the end, namely because he was already in clinical trial a solution that, says the academic, “aims at future approaches to disease prevention“, in partnership with public and private hospitals, as well as the national pharmaceutical industry.
“[We want] to change a little the paradigm of a reactive medicine to a more preventive medicine, predicting the prevention of the disease, also thanks, obviously, to competitive European funding”, he said.
This clinical trial may “speed up these discoveries that we have accumulated over years“, noted the researcher, stressing that it is “gratifying to see that there are already patients with Crohn in the trials, still experimental, and that they are already taking drugs and molecules” that the i3S team studied, not only to support prevention, but also to prevent relapses of the inflammatory process.
“ This is obviously very relevant for Crohn’s disease and will certainly be relevant for other autoimmune diseases,” he said.
The group of the Laboratory of Immunology, Cancer and Glycomedicine, one of those visited by the President, has been working to find solutions for inflammatory bowel diseases, such as Crohn's, but also autoimmune diseases, such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, and colorectal cancer.
Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease, with common symptoms diarrhea, abdominal pain, fatigue and weight loss, among others, and can affect any age group, although it is more frequently diagnosed in adolescents and young adults.