Help David and Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) to research new therapies for Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Help David and Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) in their struggle to research new therapies to improve inflammatory bowel health with Artificial Intelligence. This breakthrough could mark a turning point and improve the lives of many patients. However, the project is at a standstill due to lack of funding. With your signature, you can help to get it started.

Dear community,

My name is David García Broto, and since 1992, I have been fighting a chronic disease called Ulcerative Colitis. Over the years, I have learned to control my disease through a combination of good nutrition, sport and a healthy lifestyle. Now, I am collaborating with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) to lead a pioneering research project that aims to transform that learning into scientific evidence to improve the clinical practice of those with similar conditions.

However, we face a major challenge: lack of funding. We have been at a standstill for two years due to lack of funding. Unfortunately, it is common in Spain for researchers to encounter bureaucratic obstacles and difficulties in obtaining financial support from both the public and private sectors. This is especially true in projects that focus on non-pharmacological approaches, because the results, although they may be of great benefit to patients, do not usually translate into patents and lucrative businesses.

In this situation, we feel alone and helpless. We need your support in this fight. Help us collect 100,000 signatures to break down these barriers and give a voice to patients who could benefit from our findings. We need your help to demonstrate that there is a real interest and need for research into new therapies based on nutrition and lifestyle to improve gut health.

WHAT IS ULCERATIVE COLITIS

Ulcerative Colitis is a chronic inflammatory disease of autoimmune origin that affects the colon and rectum. In other words, your body's defenses go "crazy" and attack your own intestinal tissue by mistake. This causes ulcers to form and generates symptoms such as abdominal pain, bloody and mucousy diarrhea, urgency to evacuate, fatigue, weight loss, fever and other nightmare scenarios. I have experienced all of these symptoms intermittently throughout my life, requiring hospitalization up to three times.

The exact cause of Ulcerative Colitis is unknown, so current treatments are aimed more at treating the symptoms than the underlying cause. Current therapy focuses on suppressing the immune system response, which carries significant risks and serious unwanted side effects. In other words, they artificially lower your defenses with drugs, which can expose your body to infections and other health complications, such as an increased risk of developing certain types of cancer. In my own struggle, I have had to take corticosteroids and immunosuppressants several times over long periods of time.

30 YEARS LEARNING WITH THE DISEASE

During all these years, I have been forced to learn to live with the disease and to find ways to carry on with my activities and passions.

Despite the disease, I run in mass participation marathons: Barcelona 2013 and Paris 2014.

Despite the disease, I climb mountains: I have climbed many peaks in the Pyrenees, also in the Alps, such as Mont Blanc and other four-thousanders. I have a public YouTube channel where I publish some of these hikes, which I film and edit myself.

Besides running and mountaineering, there is another factor that plays a significant role in this narrative: my profession as a computer engineer. Let me provide some context in the next couple of paragraphs. I was born in Barcelona in 1972 and graduated with distinction in Telecommunications Engineering in 1997. In 2020, I furthered my education with a postgraduate course in Artificial Intelligence. My passion for programming, technology, and problem-solving led me to entrepreneurship soon after I completed my studies. In 2000, I established my own software company specializing in imaging applications for printers. I'm sharing this so you can better appreciate the forthcoming part of my story.

Since 2008, I have lived in a small village of two thousand inhabitants lost in the Pyrenees. From this place, I continue to develop and export my applications to more than 65 countries. This makes me feel like a true global citizen. I am an advocate for the idea that it is possible to work on cutting-edge science and technology projects from remote and sparsely populated areas, but which offer beautiful natural environments to live in.

We are getting to the point where all the previous stories converge...

So, due to this peculiar combination of being a computer engineer, entrepreneur, Ulcerative Colitis patient, nature lover, and sports enthusiast, as well as an advocate for healthy nutrition and lifestyle, in 2021 I developed an innovative data model and a new methodology to research with Artificial Intelligence the impact of nutrition and lifestyle on the composition of the microbiota and its therapeutic effect on inflammatory bowel diseases.

For 30 years, I have felt a void in this aspect of clinical practice. The answers I received were purely pharmacological because, it seemed, there wasn't enough scientific evidence to support other nutritional alternatives. By the way, I'm not the only one who has felt this void. Every day, there are 3,000 Google searches asking what to eat or avoid eating to help manage inflammatory bowel disease. I find this staggering, and it clearly shows a significant unmet need.

In response to this, I felt compelled to fill that gap. My goal was to develop solid, reliable evidence to aid others facing health issues similar to my own.

HOW I ENDED UP COLLABORATING WITH SPANISH NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL (CSIC)

To verify my hypotheses, I contacted Ascensión Marcos Sánchez, director of the Immunonutrition Group at CSIC and recognized eminence in her field. I thought she was the ideal expert to confirm whether my theoretical model could be considered scientifically cutting-edge and with high potential for real-life application. Her response could not have been more exciting. She told me that the proposal was innovative, disruptive and, most important of all, necessary. Moreover, she assured me that I could count on her support and that of her group to, in collaboration with a university, implement it together through a PhD program.

That moment was one of the most exciting and rewarding of my life.

From then on, we worked to assemble a world-class multidisciplinary team, composed of experts in nutrition, immunology, microbiology, digestive, clinical practice, data science and Artificial Intelligence, from CSIC, the University of Oviedo (UniOvi), the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), and six Spanish hospitals. I feel very fortunate to have met Ascensión and I am deeply grateful for her constant help from the beginning. I am also grateful to Felipe Lombó (UniOvi) and Susana del Pozo for accompanying us on this journey and enriching the project with their valuable contributions. With a team like this, one feels well accompanied and inspired to dream big.

WHAT THIS PROJECT CONSISTS OF AND ITS BENEFITS

Following Hippocrates' famous phrase, "Let your food be your medicine, and your medicine be your food", this project seeks to better understand how proper diet and lifestyle changes can improve the health and well-being of patients affected by inflammatory bowel diseases. By promoting a more natural, prevention-focused approach, our goal is to provide patients like me with effective, scientifically supported, and safe long-term tools to manage and improve health without relying exclusively on medications.

The project is divided into three main parts:

1. Development of a cloud application: This stage involves creating a digital platform that implements a novel dietary record model. By capturing unique and innovative data on individuals' diets like never before, we aim to better understand their eating habits and lifestyles, which will aid in the creation of personalized intervention plans.
2. Model validation: During this phase, we'll engage individuals recruited from six prestigious Spanish hospitals to conduct dietary registries using our model. Upon completion, we'll collect stool samples for metagenomic sequencing and blood samples from the participants. With the aid of Artificial Intelligence, we aim to analyze these data collectively to uncover potential relationships between nutrition, lifestyle, gut microbiota composition, and biomarkers of inflammatory activity.
3. Intervention and follow-up: In the final stage of the project, we'll utilize the collected and analyzed data to develop intervention plans centered around effective disease management. These plans will encompass dietary and lifestyle change recommendations, aimed at improving health and mitigating disease symptoms. Following the implementation of these interventions, we'll replicate the analyses conducted in the previous stage to validate the beneficial impact of the intervention on the gut microbiota.

This project offers numerous benefits, both directly to patients with inflammatory bowel diseases and indirectly to the broader community and various medical fields:

1. Improved disease management: This can lead to fewer emergency room visits, reduced instances of sick leave, less reliance on acute treatments such as medications and surgeries, fewer hospitalizations, and a decreased risk of short- and long-term complications, such as colorectal cancer induced by colitis.
2. Enhanced quality of life and emotional well-being: By intervening in diet and lifestyle, patients gain more control over their disease. This proactive approach can help improve their overall well-being and reduce levels of anxiety and depression.
3. Promotion of awareness and education: This project will raise awareness about the importance of prevention and self-care in intestinal health.
4. Lower healthcare costs: Dietary intervention doesn't imply higher costs for healthcare systems or patients, but rather promotes improved health education and awareness.
5. Advancement of scientific knowledge and technological development: The project contributes to the study of inflammatory bowel diseases and their relationship with environmental and lifestyle factors through the development of state-of-the-art computational metrics, algorithms, and analytical approaches.
6. Impact on more prevalent medical areas: Advances in our project could also benefit research in more common diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, celiac disease, cardiovascular disorders, and autoimmune conditions.

SIGN OUR PETITION

Despite having a promising research proposal, an exceptional and committed team, and the potential to significantly improve the lives of many people affected by this disease, we have yet to secure funding to kickstart the project. Over the past two years, we've faced an array of boring obstacles, including excessive bureaucracy, limitations in public funding, the prioritization of other types of projects in the private sector, a lack of visibility, and an absence of influential sponsors. These roadblocks have unfortunately impeded our progress.

I feel frustrated, saddened, and powerless. It's deeply painful to think about abandoning such promising research, a project that no one else will carry out in the same manner or with the same level of love and empathy for the patients as my team and I would have. I had heard about Spanish scientists leaving to work in other countries in search of better opportunities. Now, I understand their reasons all too well.

But I refuse to give up. I want to fight one last battle with you. That's why I have uploaded this petition to Change.org. Help us with your signature to send a clear message: show us that you believe in us, that you believe in our project and that it's worth trying. If we get 100,000 signatures, I am sure we will be able to get the attention of potential sponsors and decision makers who can help us get the funding we need to continue our research on nutrition, lifestyle, and inflammatory bowel health.

Sign our petition, share this message and help us make it go viral. Together we can make a difference and make our dream come true.

But I refuse to give up. I am ready to fight one last battle and I need your help. That's why I have launched this petition on Change.org. Your signature can send a clear and powerful message: show us that you believe in us, in our project, and that you agree it's worth fighting for. If we can gather 100,000 signatures, I am confident that we will attract the attention of potential sponsors and decision makers who can provide the funding we need to continue our research on nutrition, lifestyle, and inflammatory bowel health.

Please sign our petition, share this message, and help us make it go viral. Together, we can make a difference and turn our dream into reality.

CONTACT

If you would like to learn more about our project or contact me, I invite you to visit my LinkedIn profile here. We have also created a website, where you can find more details. You can visit the website here.

Do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions or suggestions. We are open to collaborations and welcome interest and support from the community.

Thank you for being part of this initiative and helping us to make this dream come true!