6 Gastroenterology Headlines You Missed in January 2026

January 2026 highlighted a range of advances and insights across gastroenterology, from patient-centered research to novel diagnostics and therapeutics.

New data emphasized the disproportionate healthcare access challenges and financial burdens faced by young adults with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), underscoring the need for tailored support and interventions during this vulnerable period. Meanwhile, early-phase clinical research offered promise for symptom management, with the EBX-102-02 full-spectrum microbiome therapeutic demonstrating meaningful improvements in both irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) or diarrhea (IBS-D), and studies exploring dietary interventions in mild Crohn’s disease showing potential benefits for disease activity and inflammation.

Innovations in diagnostics and disease prediction also gained attention, with emerging research linking exhaled breath to the gut microbiome as a noninvasive assessment platform, and pre-symptomatic detection of Crohn’s disease through flagellin antibodies suggesting a path toward earlier identification of at-risk individuals. Complementing these clinical and translational advances, genetic and physiologic studies of gut motility are providing new insights into the mechanisms regulating bowel function, potentially paving the way for targeted therapies that address variability in digestive health across populations.

Check out this January 2026 gastroenterology month in review for a recap of HCPLive’s coverage of the top GI news and research from the past few weeks:

Young Adults With IBD Face Greater Healthcare Access Challenges, Financial Burdens

Recent research from the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation sheds light on disproportionate healthcare access and financial burdens faced by young adults with IBD, highlighting greater levels of healthcare access challenges and financial distress among young adults versus adult and pediatric patients with the disease.

Related: Bridging the Insurance Gap in Transition-Age IBD Care, With Laura Wingate

EBX-102-02 Shows Benefit for IBS-C and IBS-D in Phase 2a TrIuMPH Trial

On January 8, 2026, EnteroBiotix Limited announced positive final results from TrIuMPH, a phase 2a clinical trial evaluating EBX-102-02, a next-generation oral full-spectrum microbiome therapeutic, in patients with IBS-C or IBS-D. In the 122-patient TrIuMPH study, EBX-102-02 demonstrated clinically meaningful improvements in the IBS symptom severity score versus placebo, with clear separation from placebo observed as early as week 1 and sustained throughout the 6-week follow up period in both the IBS-C and IBS-D cohorts.

When Medications Fall Short: Exploring Diet in Mild Crohn’s Disease, With Sidhartha Sinha, MD

Findings from a recent study suggest short, structured periods of significant caloric restriction are linked to improvements in clinical disease activity and biochemical markers of inflammation in patients with mild Crohn’s disease. In some cases, patients achieved complete clinical remission. Study investigator Sidhartha Sinha, MD, an assistant professor of gastroenterology and hepatology at Stanford, breaks down the findings and what they could mean for disease management.

Exploring Exhaled Breath as a New Platform for Gut Microbiome-Based Diagnostics

Emerging research links exhaled breath to the gut microbiome, offering insight into how microbial metabolism in the intestine may shape the volatile compounds detected in different parts of the body and how this connection could ultimately support new, noninvasive ways to assess health and disease. Andrew Kau, MD, PhD, an associate professor in the John T. Milliken Department of Medicine at WashU Medicine, and Audrey John, MD, PhD, Chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, explain their recent research on this topic.

Pre-Symptomatic Detection of Crohn’s Disease Through Flagellin Antibodies, With Sun-Ho Lee, MD, PhD

A recent study from the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute and Mount Sinai Hospital’s Center for Inflammatory Bowel Disease has identified a blood test that can predict Crohn’s disease years before symptoms appear by measuring a person’s immune response to flagellin. In this interview with HCPLive, study investigator Sun Ho Lee, MD, PhD, a gastroenterologist at Sinai Health Zane Cohen Centre for Digestive Diseases, suggests that the highly specific immune signatures identified in his research could form the basis for future biomarkers aimed at identifying individuals at risk of Crohn’s before clinical symptoms emerge.

From Physiology to Genetics: A New Lens on Gut Motility, With Mauro D’Amato, PhD

Gut motility plays a central role in digestive health, yet the biological mechanisms that regulate how frequently the bowel moves and why this varies so widely among individuals remain incompletely understood. In a new study published in Gut, Mauro D’Amato, PhD, Ikerbasque Research Professor and head of the Gastrointestinal Genetics Lab at CIC bioGUNE, and colleagues took an unconventional approach to this challenge, examining gut motility as a physiological trait. They analyzed stool frequency as a measurable outcome across large populations, with the goal of identifying genetic mechanisms that influence bowel movement patterns and could ultimately be targeted therapeutically.