Submitted by Yan Pan on Wed, 09/04/2025 - 14:55
"What happens in the gut doesn't stay in the gut," said Dr Virginia Pedicord during the talk 'Listening to Your Gut' at the Cambridge Festival 2025.
How do we understand what our guts are telling us?
Recently at the Cambridge Festival 2025, Drs Daniele Corridoni (Director of Bioscience Immunology, AstraZeneca), Miles Parkes (Director, Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre) and Virginia Pedicord (Group Leader, CITIID) had a compelling discussion at the Jeffrey Cheah Biomedical Centre on how recent research has shaped our understanding of gut health and disease, moderated by Dr Kerry McGowen, researcher and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patient.
The discussion highlighted the growing importance of gut health in overall well-being, emphasizing its links to conditions such as IBD and IBS, autoimmune diseases, and even mental health. Miles Parkes and Virginia Pedicord outlined latest research and shared practical insights from their works through collaborative research and recruitment of patients across the UK. They delved into understanding how human genetic variation predisposes to IBD and IBS, as well as how the bugs living in the gut may shape immune responses and affect responses to different therapies, including dietary manipulation. Meanwhile, Daniele Corridoni shed light on how pharmaceutical companies like AstraZeneca are driving innovation to develop new therapies for gut-related conditions.
It is reported that Hippocrates (the father of medicine) once said “all disease begins in the gut”. Over 2,000 years later, doctors and researchers continue to gain a deeper understanding of the genetic and lifestyle factors that affect gut health and how gut health impacts our overall well-being. When asked for advice on how the general public can better protect their gut health, Miles Parkes recommended:
Eat food. Mainly plants. Not too much.
About the Cambridge Festival
The Cambridge Festival is a mixture of online, on-demand and in-person events covering all aspects of the world-leading research happening at Cambridge. Meet some of the researchers and thought-leaders working in some of the pioneering fields that will impact us all.
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