“In 2014, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease which forced me to reassess my career as an elite athlete. Due to the amazing treatment and care I received, I can now manage the disease and continue doing what I love the most. GMI’s goal is that, through genomics, IBD patients like me won’t have to discover their condition at an advanced stage, usually by accident and often painfully. In the future, I hope genomic sequencing will help identify conditions early on and help treat them via tailored and targeted medicines.”

“Since I was diagnosed with IBD at fifteen years old, I’ve had three major surgeries to try and bring my condition under control. As someone living with IBD, the hope is that a cure will be found sometime in the future and the more we increase our understanding of IBD through research such as that being conducted by GMI, the better chance we have of finding that cure or at least improving the treatments available.”

“Multiple Sclerosis is such a complex disease – the symptoms can vary significantly from person to person, and the result is that the tests and treatments can be somewhat trial-and-error. So I’m really excited by the potential of the research by GMI to identify the genetic markers of MS, which could lead to early detection and more accurate targeted treatments.”

“Though I was born with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), the condition was not correctly identified until I was in my thirties, by which time inflammation had caused significant tissue damage. The incredible potential of GMI’s genomic research is that it could possibly discover the condition from very early on, meaning its early treatment and management. I can’t express enough how extremely beneficial this would be to people with AS or related conditions, which are often difficult to diagnose. GMI’s research really is the future of medicine.”