7 November 2022

The Coeliac UK team were delighted to attend The International Celiac Disease Symposium 2022 (ICDS). This year’s conference saw the world’s leading scientists, patient advocacy groups and healthcare professionals come together to share the latest insights into coeliac disease.

The packed programme covered a range of topics from the causes and triggers of coeliac disease to diagnosis, associated conditions and ongoing management and follow up – including presentations from our own Coeliac UK experts.

Head of Food Policy, Emily Hampton, gave an update on the latest developments on Precautionary Allergen Labelling (PAL) globally and how this impacts our community, which received a hugely positive response. Emily said: “Food Labelling is vitally important for our community as it allows them to make a safe and informed decision about the foods they can include in their diet. There has been a great deal of attention on PAL recently, not just in the UK but globally. ICDS was a fantastic opportunity to discuss this topic with esteemed researchers and clinicians from around the world.”

As part of the Academic Poster session, our Research Officer, Alice Andrews, showcased the results of research we conducted last year on the gluten free diet, clinical trials and alternative treatments. Whilst just over half of respondents were satisfied with the gluten free diet, the vast majority said new therapeutics (to replace the diet or supplement it) were important or very important. We’re delighted to report that the poster sparked some useful debate about potential future treatments and was awarded Poster of Distinction by the organisers! And it wouldn’t have been possible without our community sharing their views. By getting involved in research, you can help us drive future change – keep an eye out for further opportunities to join in.

It was great to see more discussion of the ‘no biopsy strategy’ for diagnosis of coeliac disease, which was introduced in the UK in 2020. It is also included in guidelines in Sweden and Finland, and has since gained international interest. We also maximised our opportunity to share knowledge with our European colleagues in the Association of European Coeliac Societies (AOECS). Getting together with our international community of experts is so important to learn from one another, share our expertise and represent the UK community of people with coeliac disease.

Interested in research? Visit  www.coeliac.org.uk/research/  to find out more about our research work.