The present invention relates to methods for identifying and/or classifyingpatients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), particularly patients withCrohns disease or ulcerative colitis. Gene expression profiling shows broadand fundamental differences in the pathogenic mechanism of UC and CD. Thesubject method is based on the findings that certain genes are differentiallyexpressed in intestinal tissue of IBD patients compared with related normalcells, such as normal colon cells. That change can be used to identify orclassify IBD cells by the upregulation and/or downregulation of expression ofparticular genes, alterations in protein levels or modification, or changes atthe genomic level (such as mutation, methylation, etc), e.g., an event whichis implicated in the pathology of inflammatory bowel diseases.
