The Israeli IBD Research Nucleus: collaborative advancements in Israeli IBD research

Key Findings

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are increasing worldwide, requiring multidisciplinary care and coordinated research infrastructures. Leveraging Israel's integrated healthcare system with IBD centers of specific and complementary research expertise, a national collaborative consortium was established: the Israeli IBD Research Nucleus (IIRN). In this narrative article, we review a decade of IIRN structure, scientific outputs, and lessons learned. The IIRN included five tertiary academic IBD referral centers across Israel, with expertise in epidemiology, mucosal immunology, diet and microbiome, imaging, and psychosocial care. We summarized the IIRN key activities, findings, and contributions across these domains. Publications (2015-2025) were identified using a structured bibliometric approach and included studies aligned with core research programs of the IIRN. This collaborative consortium has been supported since its inauguration by the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, providing funding, advice, and partnership. The IIRN provided significant contributions in several domains. It established a population-based nationwide registry (epi-IIRN) that integrates data from the four national health maintenance organizations, enabling studies of disease prevalence, course, comorbidities, and treatment patterns. Prospective cohorts of patients with Crohn's disease provided longitudinal insights linking multidisciplinary programs, Mediterranean diet and lifestyle, and psychosocial interventions with patient-reported outcomes, inflammatory markers, and microbiome features. Integrating imaging, video-capsule endoscopy, and biomarker assessment informed monitoring strategies and treat-to-target concepts. Exploratory translational work in microbiome, transcriptomics, and therapeutic drug monitoring refined insights regarding treatment response and sequencing. Artificial intelligence applications explored image and report interpretation to predict Crohn's disease. The IIRN experience illustrates how coordinated national collaborations can leverage epidemiology, prospective cohorts, translational research, and multidisciplinary care programs. This experience highlights both the opportunities and challenges of shared research infrastructure and may inform similar collaborative efforts in other healthcare settings. The Israeli IBD Research Nucleus: a national level collaboration aiming to improve IBD understanding and management Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are complex inflammatory disorders with increasing global prevalence. To address disease complexity, while focusing on patients and human-derived biomaterials to improve research and care, we established a national-level partnership: the Israeli IBD Research Nucleus (IIRN). The IIRN includes five large academic tertiary referral IBD centers in Israel. Each center contributes their own expertise (for example: population health, immunology, diet and the gut bacteria, medical imaging, and mental health support). Here we reviewed IIRN activities, key achievements and impact. We also evaluated all scientific papers published from 2015 to 2025 that either used IIRN shared resources or focused on main IIRN research areas. The IIRN has been supported since it began by the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, which provided funding support and partnership. Key activities included building a nationwide registry; following well-described groups of patients over time to study links between patient-related factors; creating shared tools and standards for tests used in IBD care (including imaging and biological measurements); and implementing early work in artificial intelligence. Overall, the IIRN produced multiple scientific papers which were cited frequently. Our 10-year experience suggests that long-term teamwork and collaboration can produce meaningful results that single centers cannot achieve, and it can help translate research into better care. The IIRN model may be useful for other countries or disease areas that need strong collaboration to improve outcomes.

Why This Matters for Body-Mind Practice

[Draft — editorial context needed]

Source

• The Israeli IBD Research Nucleus: collaborative advancements in Israeli IBD research. — Therapeutic advances in gastroenterology