Birmingham medical student wins national award for Crohn's disease research
University of Birmingham medical student Nikhil Mistry gained a prestigious top prize at the 2025 Dr Falk Pharma/Guts UK Charity national awards.
A University of Birmingham medical student has been recognised with a prestigious national prize for his research into Crohn’s disease.
Nikhil Mistry received the Medical Student Prize at the 2025 Dr Falk Pharma/Guts UK Charity national awards for his research project 'Investigating the role of regulatory T cells (Tregs) in perianal fistulising Crohn’s Disease'.
The prize was presented during the British Gastroenterology Society (BSG) annual meeting in Glasgow, with the awards ceremony held at the Radisson Blu Hotel on Tuesday 24th June 2025. The accolade includes a £1,500 cash prize.
Nikhil conducted his research while intercalating for an iBSc in Medical Sciences with Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Imperial College London. He returns to the fifth year of his medical degree at Birmingham’s School of Medicine this August.
Nikhil Mistry awarded the Medical Student Prize
It is a tremendous honour to be recognised with this award for my research and I am eager to grow further as both a scientist and clinician as I work towards a career as an academic clinician.
Talking about his research, Nikhil explains: "Perianal fistulas are a severe and debilitating complication of Crohn’s Disease (CD). Patients have a poor quality of life and typically suffer with pain, bleeding, infection and faecal incontinence."
"There is an unmet need to better characterize the immunopathology of perianal fistulising Crohn’s disease (pCD). The role of regulatory T cells (Tregs) has been well researched within the context of luminal CD, with the adoptive transfer of Tregs already being investigated as a potential therapy in this cohort of patients. The aim of my project was to understand the potential role of Tregs in the development of perianal fistulas in Crohn’s Disease."
"This study established that Tregs are preferentially enriched within fistula tissue compared to peripheral blood and contain a higher proportion of cytokine-producing Tregs, namely IL17A. We also demonstrated that a significantly higher proportion of IL17A producing Tregs were found to have low levels of IKZF2 expression in fistula tissue, compared to Tregs with high levels of IKZF2 expression, suggesting potential pro-inflammatory plasticity."
"This project will deepen our understanding of Treg phenotypes within the perianal fistula micro-environment, shedding light on their role in pCD pathology. Identifying pro-inflammatory subpopulations of Tregs in pCD could be key in the development of novel therapeutic strategies with the potential to have a significant impact on the quality of life for CD patients."
The 2025 awards mark 20 years of the Dr Falk Pharma/Guts UK Awards, which aims to encourage research and promote patient care in gastroenterology and hepatology. Over 150 healthcare professionals have been recognised since the awards began, including medical students, junior doctors, nurses, dietitians and pharmacists.
Dr Laura Constable, Research Associate in the Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction at Imperial College London, supervised Nikhil’s project. She said: "Despite being early in his scientific career, Nikhil has helped to make valuable and novel contributions to our understanding of the immunopathology of perianal fistulising Crohn’s disease (pCD), an important yet under-researched and difficult-to-treat complication of Crohn’s disease."
Notes for editors
Notes for editors
About the University of Birmingham
- The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, educators and more than 40,000 students from over 150 countries.
- England’s first civic university, the University of Birmingham is proud to be rooted in of one of the most dynamic and diverse cities in the country. A member of the Russell Group and a founding member of the Universitas 21 global network of research universities, the University of Birmingham has been changing the way the world works for more than a century.
About Dr Falk Pharma UK
Dr Falk Pharma UK has been supporting education and innovation in gastroenterology and hepatology across Europe for over 60 years. During this time, the company has organised more than 200 International Symposia and events including scientific congresses and workshops as well as presenting international awards and bursaries. The Dr Falk UK Forums are widely recognised for their significant educational value for doctors, nurses, dietitians and pharmacists. For more information visit www.drfalk.co.uk
About Guts UK
Guts UK is the only national charity that supports research into all conditions that affect the gut, liver and pancreas. Through strong connections with the British Society of Gastroenterology and membership of the Association of Medical Research Charities they are able to support a diverse portfolio of research work that is of the highest quality. https://gutscharity.org.uk/