Paul Ciclitira

Having designed novel plants that generate flour with the baking & sensorial characteristics of wheat flour, that is hypothesised not to exacerbate coeliac disease, gluten sensitivity, our collaborator has advised he will forward sufficient flour for us to assess. I am seeking to assess the flour with funding for a Clinical Research Fellow, with consumables to demonstrate that the flour is non-toxic to coeliac affected subjects. This will initially require dot blotting with our panel of monoclonal antibodies to coeliac toxic motifs. Those samples that were shown not to contain coeliac toxic motifs, we would seek to exclude in vitro toxicity by co-culturing extracts of the flour overnight with small intestinal biopsies from treated coeliac affected subjects, that would subsequently be histologically assessed. This would serve as a prelude to undertaking in vivo feeding studies in n=20 coeliac affected adult subjects, for both of which we have been awarded UK wide Ethical permission. I suggest the study is important as it would not only improve the treatment of coeliac disease, but also the quality of life for the 10 Million affected subjects in North America, 8 Million in Europe and 670,000 in the U.K, including children. We are looking for industry partners who market gluten-free foods for people with coeliac disease, who may want to commercialise our technologies.