In Hirschsprung’s disease children are born with missing nerve cells from the final part of the bowel. This means that the bowel does not function properly and without surgery the condition can be life-threatening. A child with Hirschsprung’s disease is born in the United Kingdom every 72 hours. Although it can be treated with surgery, the long term results are often disappointing and 1 in 5 children with Hirschsprung’s disease will suffer from severe incontinence or need a colostomy.

In recent years, Core has funded two projects that sought to find new treatments for this disease:

Dr Nikhil Thapar, National Institute of Medical Research, London

Mr Richard Lindley, University of Liverpool