Welcome to our first Post!
IBDRant's favorite Raves of the week including videos, rants, and research.
Hello Community!
Welcome to IBD Rant’s first substack post. If you don’t know us yet, www.IBDRant.com is a brand-new, constantly under construction, corner of the internet for people living with Crohn’s and Colitis. Our goal is to give people with IBD a place to be heard, understood, and supported with humor, honesty, and hope.
A little about me - I’m the person behind IBDrant - I’m a tech person, I’ve lived with IBD for the past 17 years, and I want life to be a bit easier on all of us. I’ve got a health-tracking app in development, and am working on IBDrant whenever I get the chance. My current goal in life is to bring of all you some joy and better living through technology.
I hope you this newsletter hits you in all of the right ways. Enjoy!
Sending you remission vibes,
Jaclyn
If you live with IBD, you’ve heard it: “You look fine! It can’t be that bad!” And while people may mean well, it completely misses the reality of an invisible illness. The time spent stuck on the cold tile bathroom floor. The missed social outings. The pain, nausea, constant bleeding from the inside out, and myriad other symptoms. The mental load and stress that compounds over and over again as you live with chronic disease. We are warriors.
Many of us look good because we’ve learned to mask, push through, and grab whatever good moments our bodies give us. Appearance has nothing to do with how sick someone is.
What we wish people said instead:
“How are you feeling today — really?”
“I’m so glad to see you, I know this is a huge effort for you”
“There’s a private bathroom & room in the basement, please take a break there if you need to”
Your illness is real even on the days you manage to look put together. And if someone says, “But you look great,” feel to say:
“Thanks. You have no idea what it took to get here.”
TyMay Lay’s Colonoscopy advocacy is truly the best. Watch it, laugh, share it with others. Most importantly, schedule that scope and think of her when you pick up the phone.
A new “Surgical Strike” Antibiotic for IBD & AI for health
I have a love/hate relationship with AI, but one thing that is strongly in the ‘love’ column is the impact it will have in health research. It’s great at pattern recognition across massive amounts of data - which is greatly needed in areas like medicine development and disease understanding.
Researchers at McMaster University and MIT just discovered enterololin, a new antibiotic designed to target the bacteria that worsen IBD—without destroying your entire microbiome. Using AI helped them to discover this much more quickly and cheaper then previous methods. We are just at the beginning of a lot more discoveries coming more quickly then ever, so hang in there friends!
The Problem With Current Antibiotics
Most antibiotics are like dropping a bomb on your gut. They kill everything—the good and the bad. For people with IBD, this often makes things worse.
Enterololin is different. It’s a “narrow-spectrum” antibiotic that suppresses bacteria linked to Crohn’s flare-ups while leaving the rest of the microbiome intact (mit).
The Bacteria It Targets
Enterololin goes after the Enterobacteriaceae family, which includes E. coli and Klebsiella species. Both Crohn’s and UC patients show dramatically elevated levels of these bacteria compared to healthy people (nih). Over 50% of Crohn’s patients have adherent-invasive E. coli (AIEC) colonizing their intestinal mucosa (frontiersin).
These bacteria aren’t just bystanders. Intestinal inflammation releases chemicals that feed E. coli’s growth, which then promotes more inflammation (cornell)—a vicious cycle. Worse, many of these strains are resistant to multiple antibiotics, and broad-spectrum antibiotic use may actually help them take over (cornell).
The AI Breakthrough
Figuring out how a drug works normally takes two years and costs $2 million. Using AI, the team did it in six months for $60,000 (mcmaster). The AI predicted in 100 seconds how enterololin attacks bacteria—and when scientists tested it, the AI was right.
What This Means
In mouse studies, enterololin targeted harmful E. coli while leaving beneficial microbes untouched. Mice recovered faster and maintained healthier microbiomes than those treated with vancomycin (mit).
Stoked Bio has licensed enterololin and is optimizing it for human trials, which could begin within three years.
Why It Matters
This is precision medicine for IBD—targeting only the bacteria driving inflammation while preserving your protective microbiome.
It’s early. It’s years away. But it’s genuinely hopeful.
Now post that rant and show some love to your IBD club-mates!