Satsangi Group - Experimental Division
Jack Satsangi's first phase of research in Oxford between 1993-2000 focussed on gene discovery in inflammatory bowel disease; the subsequent work of his laboratory group initially in Edinburgh (2000-2018), and on return to Oxford in 2018 has broadened to develop the translational potential of genetic and multi-omic research towards clinical application and personalised care in inflammatory bowel disease.
Current themes within the group are the discovery of genetic, epigenetic, & glycomic markers to predict disease susceptibility, progression, and response to biological therapies and to surgery in adults and children; the characterisation of the epigenome in inflammatory bowel disease; the characterisation of the contribution of the HLA region to disease including drug response and immunogenicity of anti-TNF agents; and exploration of gene-environmental interactions and definition of the exposome.
Recent studies have also focussed on the prediction of steroid-responsiveness in acute severe ulcerative colitis and most recently the response to Covid-19 and the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccination in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.
The group has had strong established & productive collaborations with other groups in Europe and North America. These include the EPIC Consortium (Amsterdam Medical Centre); the SPARE/BIOCYCLE Consortia; IBD-BIOM and IBD-CHARACTER Consortia; and the ICARUS and OCTAVE studies.
The group is also an active member of the INTERCEPT initiative aimed at disease prevention in high-risk individuals; the METHYLOMIC consortium aimed at personalising biological therapy in Crohn’s disease; the REFLECTION study in post-operative Crohn’s disease; and the MOXIE initiative defining the exposome in common diseases.
Funding from UKRI, ECCO, the European Commission, Helmsley Trust and Action Medical Research & CCUK supports current work.
Our team
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Jack Satsangi
Lee Placito Professor of Gastroenterology
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Alexandra Noble
Postdoctoral Scientist
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Anouschka Ramsteijn
Postdoctoral Scientist
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Catia Antunes
Postdoctoral Scientist
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Nicole Bedke
Postdoctoral Scientist
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Rosana Lopez
Postdoctoral Scientist
OUR TEAM MEMBERS | |
Alex Noble Dr Alexandra Noble is Girdlers’ Health Research Council of New Zealand Fellow at Green Templeton College, University of Oxford. Alexandra earned her PhD in 2021 from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, where she focused on the impact of environmental exposures on DNA methylation. Following this, she joined the Translational Gastroenterology Unit at the University of Oxford as a postdoctoral researcher, under the supervision of Professors Jack Satsangi and Holm Uhlig. Alexandra’s current research centres on long-read genomic sequencing and DNA methylation biomarkers for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). She aims to translate these biomarkers into a rapid, novel assay using Oxford Nanopore sequencing. This approach seeks to assist clinicians in diagnosing, prognosing, and tailoring drug treatments for patients. | |
Ana Jimenez Garcia | |
Anouschka Ramsteijn I am a postdoctoral scientist studying how environmental and genetic factors shape long-term health. My work spans genomics, epigenetics, and microbiome research across clinical and population-based studies, with a current focus on DNA methylation biomarkers predicting treatment response in inflammatory bowel disease. |  |
Catia Antunes I am a postdoctoral scientist in the Experimental Medicine Division investigating epigenetic and multi-omic biomarkers in inflammatory bowel disease. My work focuses on large-scale DNA methylation profiling, genetic–epigenetic integration and machine-learning approaches to identify signatures linked to disease behaviour and treatment response. | |
Nicole Bedke I am a postdoctoral scientist studying the molecular mechanisms underlying the immunogenicity against anti-TNF therapy in IBD. I have completed my PhD and postdoctoral training at the University of Southampton at the Roger Brooke laboratories headed by Prof. Donna Davies. I then moved into industry and held positions in several companies and start-ups to develop therapies against cancer. |  |
Jan Nowak | |
Rosana Lopez I am a postdoctoral researcher in Professor Jack Satsangi’s group in the Experimental Medicine Division at the University of Oxford, specialising in translational glycomics. I obtained my PhD in Organic Chemistry, with a focus on glycochemistry, from the University of Buenos Aires in 2021, during which I developed α-Gal biomarkers for the diagnosis and monitoring of treatment efficacy in Chagas disease. |  |