RESEARCH

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) encompasses a group of inflammatory diseases affecting the gastrointestinal tract, having as major representatives Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). Pathogenesis of IBD has remained unclear. It is commonly recognized that IBD is a complex, multifactorial inflammatory disorder. In recent years, the IBD treatment paradigm has shifted from the treatment of the symptoms to the new treat-to-target paradigm. This paradigm shift led to the development of more sophisticated treatments, such as biological therapies, fecal microbiota transplantation or even stem cell transplantation. Due to the complexity and heterogeneity of IBD, personalized treatment should be implemented in the management of patients. However, patient-tailored therapies are still lacking in clinical practice. In particular, patient stratification by predicted response to different drugs and patient stratification by predicted disease course, which may enable more individualized and effective treatment approaches, are the major unmet clinical needs.

You should be at least 18 years of age

You should have IBD, either Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis, for at least 3 months before starting the study

You require a significant change in your treatment

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS). It is typically diagnosed between the third and fourth decade of life, occurs more frequently in women than men and is considered the most common neurological cause of disability in young adults, with a prevalence greater than 1 in 1000. The clinical course of MS includes a relapsing-remitting form (RRMS), that regards approximately 90% of patients who experience self-limiting episodes of neurological dysfunction, and primary progressive form (PPMS) regarding the 10% of patients, in which the neurological disability chronically worsens without any evidence of discrete self-remitting events. Eventually, 50% of patients with RRMS will develop progressive disability independent from relapses in what is called secondary progressive MS (SPMS). The complexity of the disease etiology and of the clinical manifestations, the large inter-patient variability in terms of response to treatment, and the multitude of disease-modifying therapies approved for the treatment of MS suggest the need of a personalized clinical management.

You should be at least 18 years of age

You have any clinical form of multiple sclerosis based on the revised McDonals criteria

You have early disease stages (< 3 years) or transitioning phase to progressive disease or require a significant change in your treatment

Autoimmune rheumatoid diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), are complex chronic diseases that affect a large part of our population, with up to 25 million patients in the Western world in 2015. Despite of the wide range of disease-modifying therapies for RA, 20% of patients do not sustain low disease activity (LDA). At the same time, inter-patient variability poses a challenge to disease management. In addition, a systematic approach to stratify patients into risk groups of developing autoimmune rheumatoid diseases and relevant disease subgroups, allowing personalised treatment, is lacking. At the beginning of the disease, other chronic-inflammatory autoimmune disorders such as systemic sclerosis (SSc) or myositis (e.g., anti-synthetase syndrome; ASSD), may manifest with diffuse symptomology mimicking RA. It is therefore imperative to identify the RA-mimickers to ensure a successful therapy. SLE is another chronic-inflammatory autoimmune disease that can affect multiple organ systems. As disease activity, treatment response and prognosis are very heterogeneous among patients with SLE, there is a need for better patient stratification. In particular, patient stratification by predicted response to different drugs and patient stratification by predicted disease course, which may enable more individualized and effective treatment approaches, are the major unmet clinical needs.

You should be at least 18 years of age

You should have received a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the last 2 years or a mimicker of RA (systemic sclerosis, anti-synthetase syndrome), or systemic lupus erythematosus

You require a significant change in your treatment.