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Letter from Alice: Happy New Year!
As the holiday season comes to a close and a new year begins, I find myself reflecting on the significant strides we made in 2022 toward our mission of finding treatments and a cure for celiac disease. Here are just a few of our numerous achievements from the last year:
Research Highlights
- A research summit that brought together top researchers, patients and other stakeholders to collaborate on overcoming remaining barriers to a cure
- Major contributions to the body of science through presentations of original Beyond Celiac research and Beyond Celiac-funded research at the 2022 International Celiac Disease Symposium
- Multiple new grant opportunities opened, positioning us as the premier international celiac disease research funder
- An increase of patient-reported data in our Go Beyond Celiac registry to inform research and clinical trials
- A new multi-year partnership with Takeda to identify and reduce disparities in celiac disease diagnosis and management that aims to help minority patients access and participate in clinical trials
- A new Early Career Research Award granted to study the role of CD8 T-cells in celiac disease through an innovative research model
- Recruitment for several clinical trials for potential celiac disease treatments
Awareness and Education Highlights
- An expansion of our Reach Beyond Celiac ambassador program to include 40 volunteers across the US
- Recognition by Ragan Awards for our Voices of Celiac campaign
- Two Step Beyond Celiac 5Ks
- Six virtual Town Halls featuring researchers, medical professionals and other experts, which drew 5,236 registrants
- 6,500 submissions on our symptoms checklist
- Over 3 million Beyond Celiac website page views
These accomplishments are laying the groundwork for 2023 to be a great year. We will also be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Beyond Celiac, which we hope you can join us for! After all, we couldn’t do this life-changing work without you—thank you for participating in surveys, attending events, commenting on social media, raising money and engaging with us!
I can’t wait to see what 2023 holds for our amazing celiac disease community. I believe there’s never been a more exciting time to be a person with celiac disease, as we see so much hope and promise on the horizon.
Wishing you a healthy, happy, and gluten-free year!
Together for a cure
—Alice Bast
Research Webinar
“Prior to my diagnosis, I was constantly tired and struggling, and I always had joint pain, brain fog, nausea, and swelling […] I looked for any explanation for why I felt exhausted, and got blood test after blood test just for the doctors to tell me I was a perfectly healthy 18-year-old girl and send me home again and again. Finally, I stood up for myself and asked for a full panel blood test—that’s when I found out I had an autoimmune disease.”
