The human gastrointestinal tract can be a hostile place for visitors. It’s filled with digestive acids and microorganisms that rapidly break down swallowed bits of food, and it can be just as rough on non-food molecules. That includes some of the latest drugs for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). “Some medications that target the immune system don’t work if they’re swallowed because your gut would digest them like a piece of steak,” says Dr. Gilaad Kaplan, a gastroenterologist, IBD researcher, and professor of medicine at the University of Calgary in Canada. “You have to deliver these medications to the immune system in a way that bypasses the GI tract.” One method of bypassing the gut is known as an infusion, which is essential…