Jessica applauded for coeliac discovery

Jessica Biesiekierski's research has unlocked more secrets of gluten and coealiac disease.


A YOUNG researcher is sending rumbles through the world of gastroenterology.


Jessica Biesiekierski has spent months behind a microscope in the Box Hill Hospital researching the impact of gluten on people without coeliac disease.


Ms Biesiekierski said previously there was no testing to see if gluten caused stomach pain, bloating or other intestinal symptoms in people who did not have coeliac disease.


“But there was a strong community opinion that it does,” Ms Biesiekierski said.


Those murmurings have proven correct.


Ms Biesiekierski put 34 people without coeliac disease on either gluten or gluten-free diets. Neither the participants nor the researcher knew which diet a person was on.


She found that the people with gluten in their diet complained of stomach pains and other symptoms while those without gluten did not.


For her research Ms Biesiekierski won the prestigious 2009 Australian Gastroenterology Douglas Piper Young Investigator Award.


“The award was a validation into the work we were doing,” she said.


“I have grown so close to the study group, and to know I will be able to help them is incredibly rewarding.”


Ms Biesiekierski is in her first year of a Monash University PhD and this was her first completed study.


The 23-year-old researcher has presented her paper to numerous professional bodies filled with crowds of eminent and, at times, sceptical gastroenterology researchers.


“Some of the more experienced doctors have been told all their careers that gluten causes stomach pain only in people with coeliac disease and then they are confronted with the young blonde thing telling them otherwise,” Ms Biesiekierski said.