You are being invited to participate in “The GEM (Genetic, Environmental, Microbial) Project”. The GEM Project is a prospective (looking forward) study involving a select group of individuals which is hoping to identify possible causes of Crohn's Disease (CD). We are looking to study all siblings and children of patients with Crohn’s disease in the study called the “GEM Project”.

While we know much about this disease, we still do not know the cause. There is evidence, however, that brothers and sisters as well as children of Crohn's patients have an increased chance of developing the disease in their lifetime. It is with this in mind that we are enrolling siblings and children of Crohn's patients to participate in a series of at-home questionnaires and biospecimen collections in order to understand what’s unique about those in the group that actually do develop the disease.

The first step in this project is to identify people such as you who have Crohn's Disease (called Probands). You will be asked to answer questions about your medical history and we will ask your permission to examine your medical chart. This will help the research team determine if you meet the criteria for the project, namely a firm diagnosis of Crohn’s. Once we have confirmed that you are eligible in the first step of the study, we will then ask for your permission to contact your siblings and/or children and we will also ask that you speak with your siblings and/or children to tell them that we will be calling.

This study is the only one of its kind and we believe it will provide important information about the cause(s) of CD and possibly allow for the development of new and better therapies with an aim to a cure. If you are interested, please sign up to be contacted at gem.sanguinebio.com or call your Sanguine Clinical Research Coordinator at (818) 804-2462. We look forward to your participation!

Sincerely,

Katherine Li

Clinical Research Coordinatior

Sanguine BioSciences

15335 Morrison St, Suite 202

Sherman Oaks, CA 91403

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