NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – A new international consortium called SYSCID (A systems medicine approach to chronic inflammatory disease) has received €14.4 million ($15.3 million) to support a five-year research project with the goal of developing personalized medicine approaches for inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and systemic lupus erythematosus.
Coordinated by Kiel University in Germany, the effort involves academic and industry partners from nine different countries.
Philip Rosenstiel, scientific coordinator of the SYSCID consortium, said in a statement that the effort will investigating a variety of biomarkers "from the epigenome to the microbiome," as well as tools like single-cell analysis. Using build data from previous and ongoing research activities like the International Human Epigenome Consortium, SYSCID hopes to better understand patient response and non-response to current treatment regimens.
"With many new targeted therapies coming to the market, we need the right therapy at the right time," Rosenstiel added.
The project will also seek to develop new therapeutic strategies that address root causes of disease, such as epigenetics, rather than just their immune effects and symptoms.