Dr Nick Kennedy is a Consultant Gastroenterologist at the Royal Devon and Exeter and Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Exeter. His clinical and research interests are in inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis), and he is driven to improve the diagnosis and treatment of these chronic inflammatory conditions. He has experience in co-ordinating large multi-site projects to obtain clinical data and biological samples from IBD patients and skills in managing complex clinical and molecular datasets. He has a particular interest in understanding treatment response in IBD. He is a member of the UK and international IBD genetics consortia, sits on the British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) IBD clinical research group and is one of the group leaders within the BSG IBD guidelines group. He is also an associate editor of Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics.

Consultant Specialist in IBD and intestinal failure, University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff ‐ Dr Hawthorne studied medicine at Queens’ College Cambridge, and went on to do his clinical training at the University of Oxford, qualifying in 1983. After doing an MD in Nottingham with Chris Hawkey, he took up a consultant post in Cardiff in 1995. His clinical interests are inflammatory bowel disease and intestinal failure. As well as developing the IBD services in Cardiff, he established and led the Cardiff Intestinal Failure service until 2017.
He is ex-chair of the BSG IBD section (2015-2018), led the writing of the BSG IBD guidelines (2019), and is chair of the Medical Research Grants committee for Crohn’s Colitis UK. He is a member of the IBD UK committee and has been involved in development of the UK IBD Standards 2019. He also sits on the IBD Wales committee. He is a director and board member of the IBD Registry co., representing the BSG. His research interests include clinical trials of immunosuppressive therapy in IBD, and the natural history of inflammatory bowel disease.

Professor Ailsa Hart is Consultant Gastroenterologist, St Mark’s Hospital and Sub-Dean of St Mark’s Hospital Academic Institute. She studied at Oxford University and was awarded a First Class Honours Degree. She achieved her PhD with Imperial College, funded by a Wellcome Trust Fellowship. She has published 2 books, over 200 papers, reviews and book chapters & supervised/ co-supervised over 20 higher degree students. She is currently on the Governing Board of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation; is on the IBD Clinical Research Group Committee for the BSG; UK Patient and Public Involvement Lead for Gastroenterology; and on the Research Committee for the Crohn’s and Colitis UK charity.

James Lindsay is the Professor of Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London and a Consultant Gastroenterologist at Barts Health NHS Trust. Along with a full multidisciplinary team he runs the adolescent and adult IBD service at The Royal London Hospital.
He is the Education Officer and a member of the Governing Board of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation (ECCO). He is also the ECCO e-learning ambassador and past chair of the ECCO Education Committee. He has chaired working groups for the ECCO consensus on the management of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. He is the British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) national societies representative to United European Gastroenterology and is a member of the International Organisation of IBD (IOIBD)
Professor Lindsay serves on the BSG IBD Clinical Trials Steering Group and is Chief Investigator for a series of investigator-led and commercial clinical trials in IBD. He leads the NIHR funded ASTIClite trial which will assess the efficacy, safety and mechanism of action of low intensity autologous stem cell transplantation in patients with refractory Crohn’s disease. In addition, he leads a program of translational science research.

Nick is an honorary Reader and consultant in Gastroenterology at King’s College London and Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. His clinical and research interests focus on intestinal inflammation in the context of inflammatory bowel diseases (such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease), but also in gut inflammation resulting from certain treatments, such as immune checkpoint inhibitors. His lab is based in the Centre for Inflammation and Cancer Immunology (CIBCI) in the School of Immunology of Microbial Sciences, which is one of the biggest immunology communities in the UK.
His research group focuses on the molecular (transcription factors and microRNAs) and cellular (T-cells, dendritic cells and innate lymphoid cells) mechanisms responsible for mediating chronic intestinal inflammation. There is also a strong interest in understating anti-inflammatory mechanisms, including cellular mediators of immunosuppression, such as regulatory T-cells and mesenchymal stromal cells. His lab is also interested in understanding how cell-specific and tissue-specific transcriptional programmes disclose important information about disease pathogenesis, and how these signatures could be harnessed to predict outcomes in patients with gut inflammation.

Tariq Iqbal is a hollow organ gastroenterologist based in Birmingham. He is involved in translational research and has set up the first licenced stool bank in the UK which provides FMT for the treatment of patients with C.difficile and for clinical trials across the UK. His main research interests involve iron/treatment of anaemia and in manipulation of the gut microbiome in IBD.

Frances Humby MRCP, PhD is a Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Clinical Rheumatology within the William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London and Barts Health NHS Trust. Her research interests are translational and focused primarily on RA in particular on synovial pathobiological markers of prognosis in early disease and on the identification of synovial biomarkers of response/resistance to biologic drugs. She leads the RA biologics service at Barts Health NHS Trust and runs specialist clinics in early inflammatory arthritis and biologics. She is also lead for the EMR clinical trials unit.

Principal Clinical Psychologist, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge ‐ Dr Fiona Eldridge is an HPCP registered Principal Clinical Psychologist working at Addenbrooke’s Hospital Cambridge. She has extensive experience working with adults and young people in both mental health and latterly physical health care settings in a range of services. She currently works in Gastroenterology, specialising in IBD.
A particular area of interest is supporting services to imbed psychology within the team with a view to developing more integrated, person centred, models of care – improving outcomes for both the individual and the treating team. She has extensive post-qualification training in a number of therapeutic approaches including CBT, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Analytic Therapy, Compassion Focussed therapy and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy. She utilises these approaches in her individual work with patients but also in consultation, supervision and teaching. Her research interests include mood as input hypothesis in worry; rumination and psychological approaches in IBD treatment.

Kevin Whelan is the Professor of Dietetics and Head of the Department of Nutritional Sciences at King’s College London. He is a Principal Investigator leading a translational research programme exploring the effect of dietary interventions on the gut microbiota, nutritional status and quality of life in inflammatory bowel disease and other gastrointestinal disorders. He has published over 150 journal papers on the topics of fibre, probiotics, prebiotics, FODMAPs and food additives. He was a member of the International Life Sciences Institute Expert Panel on Prebiotics and was an expert member of the panels developing the NICE Quality Standards for Inflammatory Bowel Disease and the ECCO Topical Reviews of Diet in IBD.

Rosie is a 29 year old PA from Essex. She was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease in 2003. She has already tried many different drugs on her journey with Crohn’s, and uncountable surgeries. With many hospital admissions along the way. She is a keen advocate for the disease, having worked on projects with Crohn’s and Colitis UK, as well as frequently using social media to normalise IBD as a part of her everyday life. Rosie has experienced the differences in treatment at a paediatric clinic when first diagnosed at her local hospital that didn’t specialise in IBD. Then referred over to the Royal London which is where she has gone from Paediatrics, to adolescents, to adult clinics. Rosie has also attended clinics at St Marks hospital for specialised surgery to repair significant perianal disease.

Alissa Walsh is a Consultant Gastroenterologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. After completing her formal gastroenterology training in Australia Dr Walsh undertook a Clinical Fellowship in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases within the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust (2007-2008) and thereafter a National Health Medical Research Council fellowship in Australia (2009-2011). Alissa practiced in Sydney until 2015 at which stage she returned to Oxford where she has completed a DPhil in clinical medicine at the University of Oxford.

Alissa’s research interests have included IBD activity indices, faecal transplantation in UC and most recently real time data collection in patients with IBD.