No one-size-fits-all: New gut models for personalized therapies

“No two patient stories are the same. Nevertheless, many people affected by these diseases still receive standardized treatments. With SYMPHOGUT, we want to better reflect the biological diversity of patients – and thereby help us better understand differences in disease progression and develop more targeted treatments in the future,” explains Ana Mora-Boza. She is a biomaterials scientist and has held the Professorship of Organoid Systems and Biointerfaces at the TUM Campus Weihenstephan since February 2026.
The project, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) with €1.93 million, started in summer 2026 and will run until 2031.

Reflecting human diversity in gut research

In the SYMPHOGUT project, Ana Mora-Boza and her team are pursuing an innovative approach. They use patient-specific gut models to capture individual differences between patients. The research team combines synthetic polymers with so-called gut organoids – miniature gut tissues grown in the laboratory from patient cells that replicate key structures and functions of the human intestine.
In this controlled research environment, the team studies the complex interactions between gut tissue, the immune system and the microbiome in detail. At the same time, the team uses these synthetic polymers to increasingly replace substances derived from animals. This makes their studies more comparable and easier to reproduce.

Focusing on the influence of hormones on intestinal inflammation

A particular focus of SYMPHOGUT is the role of sex hormones. “Men and women are often diagnosed and treated in the same way, but the way the disease progresses and how patients respond to treatment can be very different. Hormones like estrogen and progesterone change throughout our lives – for example, during pregnancy or menopause – and they have a huge influence on our immune system, the gut barrier and the microbiome. All of these factors can play an important role in how intestinal inflammation develops and progresses,” explains Ana Mora-Boza.
By incorporating hormonal influences into the newly developed laboratory models, the research team aims to better understand why diseases may progress differently in women and men and how an individual hormone profile affects treatment success.

More patient-oriented research, more targeted treatments

With SYMPHOGUT, Prof. Dr. Ana Mora-Boza aims to make gut research more sustainable, precise and patient-oriented. The models developed in the project are intended to provide more reliable insights during the early research phase, improve the planning of clinical studies and accelerate the development of more effective therapies in the long term. At the same time, they can help reduce dependence on animal testing.
The project therefore has the potential to fundamentally improve care for people with chronic inflammatory bowel diseases, reduce healthcare costs and pave the way for more personalized medicine that takes sex, age and differences in disease progression into account.