Emma Olivia Schultz Harringer
Emma is one of five medical students who have been accepted into our DARE programme (Danish American Research Exchange) this year, and she will be affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco, where she will investigate, among other things, the effect of gluten on patients' microbiome, metabolome and immune system.
Researching in gluten and ulcerative colitis at UCSF
According to several studies, patients with the intestinal disease ulcerative colitis experience an improvement in their condition when they switch to a gluten-free diet. However, testing for gluten intolerance is currently performed in the small intestine, and science is therefore unable to explain why a group of patients with disease in the large intestine experience a worsening of their symptoms when consuming gluten.
Therefore, over the next ten months, Emma Olivia Schultz Harringer will be researching, with support from the Lundbeck Foundation, whether – and possibly how – gluten changes the intestinal environment in patients suffering from ulcerative colitis.
Emma is currently studying medicine at the University of Southern Denmark.