Symposium on 'The challenge of translating nutrition research into public health nutrition'. Session 3: Joint Nutrition Society and Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute Symposium on 'Nutrition and autoimmune disease'. Recent advances in genetic understanding of coeliac disease.

Over the past 20 years major advances have been made in the diagnosis and understanding of pathogenic mechanisms relating to coeliac disease. Recently-identified genetic markers support the immunological-inflammatory nature of the disease. It is hoped that these newly-identified genes will assist further dissection of the inflammatory pathways in coeliac disease and give insight into why certain individuals develop intolerance to dietary gluten.