While there has been significant advances in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease the majority of patients treated with these therapies do not go into remission. Many patients require surgery for disease complications including fibrotic strictures and fistulizing disease for which there remain no effective therapies. Molecular and clinical heterogeneity may expalin this variation and this meeting will address staregies for addressing this. The aim of the meeting is to address: novel therapeutic approaches for treating IBD; basic advances leading to a better understanding of the natural history of IBD; potential environmental interventions in IBD; cutting edge technologies and analytic approaches for complex diseases such as IBD. Attendees will learn about new technologies that are being applied to complex diseases such as IBD as well as about novel 'molecular' approaches to sub-classify disease and how these approaches may lead to improved outcomes for IBD patients. This meeting fills a niche bringing together leaders both in translational research in IBD and those using and developing cutting-edge technologies and analytic approaches to study complex biology. Currently there are 2 meetings annually dedicated to IBD. These are very clinically orientated and also tend to be rather introspective lacking engagement from other disciplines. One aim of this meeting is to bring experts studying complex systems together with people studying IBD to develop novel approaches to these diseases.