Consortium presentation

The ImmunAID consortium (Immunome project consortium for AutoInflammatory Disorders), coordinated by INSERM, is composed of 24 partners in 12 countries and includes clinical centres and academic research laboratories but also patients representatives and SMEs as well as ECRIN.

The project management team is supporting the coordinator for the whole coordination and management of the consortium but also the communication on the project and dissemination of the results.

Members:

Vassili Soumelis (Coordinator of the consortium)INSERM u933

Arturo Hernandez-Cervantes (Project manager of the consortium)

logo APHPImidiatesorbonne universiteBruno Fautrel

Fanny Fernandes

 

LOGO MANDANOVA RVB

 

Fredéric Peyrane

 

 

Project Information ImmunAID | Grant agreement number: 779295

Start date: 1 Mai 2018 | End date: 30 Avril 2023 Funded under: H2020-EU.3.1.1.

Total budget: € 15 835 851,25 | Contribution de l’UE: € 15 835 851,25

Coordinated by: INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LA SANTE ET DE LA RECHERCHE MEDICALE FRANCE

BELGIUM

icons8 belgique 48 VIB (Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie)

Adress: Rijvisschestraat 120; 9052 Zwijnaarde - Gent

Activity: Research Organisations

Description of the legal entity:
VIB is a Centre of Excellence in life sciences in Flanders, Belgium focusing on performing basic research with a strong link towards valorisation in pharmaceutical, agricultural and industrial applications.

Unit for Structural Biology Savvas Savvides
The VIB Center for Inflammation Research (IRC) is active within VIB and the Universities of Ghent, Brussels (VUB), and Hasselt in Belgium. The IRC labs study the molecular mechanisms of inflammation. At the heart of this research is the investigation of molecular signaling pathways in inflammatory cells and structural cells of the skin, lung, gut and brain. The Savvides team is part of the VIB-UGent Center for Inflammation Research, which unites leading groups with complementary expertise and a common interest in the molecular mechanisms of inflammation. The Savvides team employs integrative structural biology approaches to elucidate the structural and mechanistic principles underlying the assembly, activation and pathophysiology of protein complexes pivotal to immunity, inflammation, cancer, and autoimmune diseases.
The Savvides team is responsible for contributing to structural, biochemical and biophysical studies of pro-inflammatory proteins and complexes in WP5.
Sammy.Detry nbJulie nbSavvas.Savvides nb
S. Detry                   J. Andries            S. Savvides

Web site

Translational Immunology Laboratory - VIB Center for Brain and Disease Research. Adrian Liston
The mission of the VIB Center for Brain and Disease Research is to perform frontline research, addressing significant questions and key issues relevant to major human health challenges. We focus on basic molecular and cellular mechanisms and use the power of modern genetics and genomics as well as molecular, cellular and developmental biology. The center fosters and promotes excellence in research, with a strong trust in both the creativity of individual researchers and the benefit of synergistic interactions. The Liston’s team will do the Immune phenotyping of autoinflammatory ImmunAID cohort patients (flow cytometry and single cell sequencing) and will participate to the Genetic analysis

Web site

VIB Center for Microbiology Jeroen Raes
The VIB Center for Microbiology combines large-scale, next-generation sequencing with novel computational approaches to investigate the functioning and variability of the healthy human microbiome at the systems level and study its alteration in disease. In this context, we recently discovered the existence of discrete gut flora types (enterotypes) that are independent of host properties such as nationality, sex or race and are studying the predictive power of microbial markers for various intestinal diseases. Raes’ team will perform microbiome analysis of faecal SAID samples to identify novel microbiome-based diagnostic signals and new disease targets.
Picture Jeroen Raes nbDVandeputte nb
J. Raes                   D. Vandeputte

Web site

icons8 belgique 48 Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Adress: Oude Markt 13; 3000 Leuven

Activity: Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

Web site

KU Leuven is one of Europe’s highest-ranked and most renowned universities. It boasts a long tradition of pioneering research and high-quality education. As a leading research university and co-founder of the League of European Research Universities, KU Leuven accommodates all kinds of research, from fundamental to applied, from individual projects to participation in large-scale, prestigious international research consortia, such as the European Research Council and Horizon 2020
Laboratory of Immunobiology Carine Wouters and Patrick Matthys
The Laboratory of Immunobiology focuses its research on the pathogenic mechanisms that drive different autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis, and macrophage activation syndrome and hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis. The work performed always aims to provide translational insights, by combining findings in relevant animal models with data obtained on patient samples, comparing both active and inactive disease episodes. Prof. Dr. Carine Wouters works in the University Hospital of Leuven and is responsible for the treatment and recruitment of paediatric SAID patients and sample collection  (WP1). Prof.. Patrick Matthys is responsible for  in-depth analysis of NK cells from SAID patients before and after treatment, in comparison with healthy controls.
Laboratory of Molecular Immunology /Department of Microbiology and Immunology Paul Proost
The Laboratory of Molecular Immunology (Department of Microbiology and Immunology, KU Leuven) is embedded in the Rega Institute, a multi-departmental institute in which medicinal chemistry, microbiological and immunological research groups are combined. It is led by Prof. Paul Proost and has a strong background in protein biochemistry including chemical synthesis of intact (modified) chemokines, purification and identification of chemokines and evaluation of chemokine-receptor and chemokine-glycosaminoglycan interactions. In addition, they have major research lines on the function of chemokines in acute and chronic inflammation, autoimmunity and cancer. In ImmunAID, they will evaluate the presence of chemokine modifying enzymes in patient samples and quantify post-translationally modified chemokines (discriminating between chemokine forms with different biological activities) by western blot or nano scale UPLC coupled to mass spectrometry (MS/MS).

icons8 belgique 48 Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Liege

Adress: Sart Tilman B35; 4000 Liege

Activity: Research Organisations

Web site

The CHU of Liège is the academic hospital linked to the University (U) of Liège. As the only University hospital in Wallonia and attached to a Medical faculty offering a comprehensive cycle, CHU fulfils its academic goals with strength, conviction and dynamism.
The rheumatology department is divided in 3 units: a clinical (17 doctors and two clinical nurses), a basic research (6 members) and a clinical research one (6 members). The fields of expertise are autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Dr Christian Von Frenckell is co-leading the WP1 dedicated to the implementation of the ImmunAID cohort and biollection. The functions of the coleaders are to define the different SAIDs that will be studied in the ImmunAID project, to select the centers in order to achieve the recruitment objective, to create a single and global eCRF, to make the link with the various national and international networks, to make the link with ECRIN to ensure the follow-up of the centers and the samples to the biobanks, to make the link with each leader of diseases.

icons8 belgique 48 Université de Liège

Adress: Place Du 20 Aout 7; 4000 Liege

Activity: Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

Web site
Liege university represents more than 2000 people- lecturer/researchers, scientists and technicians- involved in its research programs. The moderate size of the University encourages inter-disciplinary research and, more generally, contacts between scientists from various disciplines. There exist numerous partnerships with the industrial sector and the University plays an active role in enhancing the creation of spin-off companies and guiding their development.
The Laboratory of Rheumatology belongs to the Interdisciplinary Cluster for Applied Genoproteomics (GIGA Centre, University of Liège) with over 600 researchers. Dominique De Seny will carry out the proteomics studies by mass spectrometry in WP2.

DENMARK

icons8 danemark 48 Kobenhavns Universitet (UPH)

Adress: Norregade 10; 1165 Kobenhavn

Activity: Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

Web site

Københavns Universitet (www.ku.dk) is the largest university in Scandinavia and ranked among the top 50 universities in the world. With over 40,000 students and more than 9,000 employees, the University of Copenhagen is one of the largest institutions of research and education in the Nordic countries.
KBelling nbSBrunack nb
K. Belling                S. Brunack
The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research (CPR) is located at the University Of Copenhagen Medical School. It is organized into four major programs, where the Programme for Disease Systems Biology works as a multi-disciplinary basic research group within bioinformatics and systems biology with particular focus on large data sets of relevance to human health. The CPR has a highly multidisciplinary profile (molecular biologists, biochemists, medical doctors, physicists and computer scientists). The center conducts basic research and has been financed by a grant from the Novo Nordisk Foundation, with contributions from the university.
UCPH-CPR has general expertise in molecular level systems biology and healthcare data integration. It will be involved in WP6 in the analysis and integration of health data, in particular the steps in the WP6 regarding bioinformatics and data analysis. This will involve broad analysis of biomarkers, both omics-markers as well as more directed measurements, in an integrated fashion. To do so, machine-learning methods, statistical analyses and meta-tools will be developed and implemented.

 

FRANCE

icons8 france 48 INSERM

Adress: Paris

Activity: Research Organisations

Inserm (Institut National de la santé et de la recherche médicale) is the French Public research Institute dedicated to biomedical research. It includes 281 laboratories/institutes throughout France.
INSERM Unit U976 HIPI: "Human Immunology, Physiopathology and Immunotherapy V. Soumelis ImmunAID coordinator
Vassili Soumelis nbArturo Hernandez nb
V. Soumelis           A. Hernandez
Dr Soumelis and his team will play an essential role in driving the project towards its final objectives. This is dictated in WP8. He will also critically contribute to the dissemination of the program and the results (WP7), and will be part of all project committees, overseeing issues such as access to bio bank clinical samples, ethics and integrity, as well as relationships with potential industrial partners. He would be the main contact communicating with European Commission project officers and responsible of delivering reports.
He is in charge of transcriptomics analysis by RNAseq in WP2 and of coordinating WP6 and ensures the smooth operations, development of efficient data management tools, and the use of state-of-the-art and innovative methodologies for diagnostic classification of complex data. He and his team have a strong expertise in integration of heterogeneous biological and clinical data in various disease settings, large scale data analysis, signal integration, and statistical modelling of complex/multidimensional datasets.
CIRI, the Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie (International Center for research in Infectiology)
CIRI  is an INSERM institute laboratory  located in Lyon, France. The CIRI gathers 22 teams working in the field of immunology, virology and bacteriology. This institute has close connections with Lyon Hospital (Hospices Civils de Lyon), the CNRS, the University of Lyon and Ecole Normale Supérieure. Thomas Henry's team within CIRI is dedicated to the study of inflammasomes in SAID and bacterial infections, includes 12 and is connected to Lyon Hospital thanks to the presence of two associated clinicians. Thomas Henry team is involved in WP3 to characterize inflammasome function and dysfunction in primary cells for patients and healthy donors. In addition, thanks to its connection with the Lyon Hospital, he will contribute to promote the SAID patients’ recruitment along the course of this project.

Web site

UMR S933 Physiopathologie des maladies génétiques d'expression pédiatrique -  Serge Amselem
The research unit UMR S933 INSERM/Université Pierre et Marie Curie is dedicated to the study of the molecular and cellular bases of several human genetic disorders, including SAIDs. This research unit located at the Armand Trousseau hospital in Paris consists of a single team led by Prof S. Amselem. The research activities of this team consist of (i) a fundamental component (identification of the first molecular defects of several genes involved in those disorders followed by functional studies based on several complementary approaches) and (ii) a translational aspect aiming at improving the diagnosis of these disorders (identification of molecular markers).
The work in ImmunAID is performed by Pr. Sonia Athina Karabina (SAK) and Dr. Irina Giurgea (IG)  for the  design and supervision of the genomic analysis (WP2), the study of the functionality of inflammasomes in SAID and the functional validation of the identified variations in new genes.

Web site

Pôle de Recherche Clinique PRC - Hélène Esperou
Clinical Research Department of INSERM assists researchers to ensure the feasibility, quality and correct implementation of their clinical study that regulatory texts are complied with and research participants are protected. To achieve this, as a sponsor INSERM: (1) Evaluates the clinical and health research projects that researchers present to it, (2) prepares the necessary documents for submitting the project to the health authorities (Ethical Research Committee and Competent Authorities),(3) takes out civil liability insurance to protect and possibly compensate participants in the research, prepares the information documents on the research and consent that all participants in clinical and health research must sign, together with patients’ associations, (4) records and possibly declares any adverse events that arise during a research project to the health authorities, (5) ensures the proper implementation and quality of the research through regular visits to the investigation sites.

icons8 france 48 Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris

Adress: 3 Avenue Victoria; 75004 Paris

Activity: Research Organisations

Web site

APHP.6, GH Pitié-Salpetrière and Tenon, Department of Internal Medicine and clinical immunology David Saadoun, B Fautrel, S Georgin-Lavialle
Pr Bruno FautrelGEORGIN LAVIALLE Sophie
B. Fautrel                S. Georgin-Lavialle
Internal Medicine and Clinical Immunology Department of GH la Pitié-Salpêtrière has a National and international recognized expertise in the care of adult patients suffering of auto-immune/inflammatory (AIS) rare diseases and is a leading member of the National Reference Center for Rare Systemic and Auto-Immune Diseases. Pr David Saadoun is recruiting patients for ImmunAID cohort and is a WP5 task leader on dosage of cytokine, chemokine, adipokine and mast cells mediators in SAIDs patients’ samples.
Hôpital Saint-Louis – Dermatology Department Jean David Bouaziz
Dermatology Department, Saint Louis hospital, Paris, France is a large unit including inpatients and outpatients with inflammatory skin diseases (neutrophilic dermatosis and auto-immune disorders), infectious skin diseases and dermato-oncology. The skin research center, INSERMU976 in  Saint Louis hospital, Paris, France has  great area expertise in skin inflammatory diseases, T cell and B cell population.. Pr JD Bouaziz is involved in WP1 as one of the leader of the neutrophilic dermatosis part of the project.
Kremlin-Bicêtre Hospital - The Paediatric rheumatology department, Isabelle Kone Paut
The is the main university hospital in South of Paris area. The Paediatric rheumatology department
The paediatric rheumatology department of the University Hospital of Bicêtre deals with significant number of patients and families in all fields of paediatric inflammatory diseases. Of note it cares the widest population of paediatric patients with FMF, PFAPA, Behcet's disease, CRMO and CAPS in France. It is also a  a EULAR center of excellence for rheumatology 2015-2020, a member of the ERN RITA, and the HCP has been designated autoinflammatory diseases representative within the steering committee of this ERN; the national reference center for rare autoinflammatory disorders: CEREMAIA ; and connected with two INSERM research units: INSERM U 1018; Centre de recherche en Epidémiologie et Santé des Population (CESP) and INSERM U1183 "Cellules souches, plasticité cellulaire, médecine régénératrice et immunothérapies"). Isabelle Koné-Paut is participating to the coordintation of ImmunAId cohort and will recruit patients.

icons8 france 48 Institut Curie

Adress: Rue D'Ulm 26; 75231 Paris

Activity: Research Organisations

Web site

Recognized public interest foundation since 1921, Institut Curie has worked to fulfil its three missions since its founding by Marie Curie, namely research, care and the preservation and transfer of knowledge. This multi-disciplinary approach, part of the bylaws of the foundation, is the DNA of Institut Curie. The Bioinformatics platform of Institut Curie has four five missions: (1) data integration, (2) collaborative support to biologists or clinicians for bioinformatics and biostatistics data analysis, (3) delivering advices and training in biostatistics and bioinformatics, (4) support to high performance computing (5) coordination of bioinformatics activities within Institut Curie.
The bio-informatic team is developing the eCRF of the ImmunAID cohort and will be involved in WP6 for the “Clinical and biological data management”. This will include the sanity check of the data that are transmitted to the consortium in order to ensure their consistency, the integration of omics in a dedicated information system to allow the interoperability of the data and their sharing between the different partners of the consortium.

icons8 france 48 OWKIN France

Adress: 75 Rue De Turbigo; 75003 Paris

Activity: Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)

Web site

Founded in 2016 by Thomas Clozel, M.D, specialized in haematology, and Gilles Wainrib, professor of artificial intelligence and mathematical biology, OWKIN develops innovative services and solutions to accelerate drug discovery and advance precision medicine. The increasing accumulation of data, combined with the recent revolution in machine learning, can help discovering new therapeutic targets, predict the effect of molecules and help doctors give the right treatment to the right person. At the heart of the medicine of the future, OWKIN counts among its clients and partners pharmaceutical companies, large cancer centers and academic research laboratories, in France and abroad. Owkin is in charge of the development of a semi-supervised clustering approach to discover a novel classification of AID using omics and imaging data, which is consistent with clinical and biological variables.

icons8 france 48 AMBIOTIS

Adress: Canal Biotech 2 3 Rue Des Satellites; 31400 Toulouse

Activity: Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)

Web site

Ambiotis is a privately-owned biotechnology company based on a business model of Contract Research Organization (CRO). Ambiotis is offering innovative research services and specialized in testing the anti-inflammatory effect of compounds on various models. The company is advancing the proofs-of-concept for compounds issued from health industry (pharma/biotech, agro food and cosmetic companies). Ambiotis is the first CRO worldwide specializing in the inflammatory process resolution. Resolution of inflammation is a natural answer characterized by the sequential synthesis of specialized lipid mediators (lipoxins, resolvins, protectins, maresins…) that allow the return to homeostasis and avoid chronic inflammation. There is thus a growing interest for the development of drugs that would be able to boost the pathways of resolution to fight chronicity, pain, infection and allow wound healing. In ImmunAID Ambiotis will be in charge of the evaluation of inflammation and resolution thanks to metabolipidomic and of the in vitro evaluation of inflammation and resolution pathways using human primary cells.

icons8 france 48 CEA Commissariat à l'Ernergie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives

Adress: Rue Leblanc 25; 75015 Paris 15

Activity: Research Organisations

Web site

The CEA is the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, a public government-funded research organisation working in the areas of energy, defense and security, information.
JFDeleuze nbABoland nbROlaso nbVM nbSMCGinn nb
J.F Deleuze            A. Boland             R. Olaso               V. Meyer                   S. MC Ginn
The Centre National de Recherche en Génomique Humaine (CNRGH) headed by Jean-François Deleuze and previously known as the Centre National de Génotypage (CNG), was created in 1999 as a large-scale infrastructure for genetic and other genomic studies with main objective to advance research on the genetics of human diseases through internal and collaborative research programs. The CEA-CNRGH has developed a number of state-of-the-art genomics technology platforms and laboratories for the management of biological resources, for disease gene and biomarkers discovery, and for follow-up of markers with various approaches including functional genomics, and bioinformatics for data management and interpretation. CNRGH will be performing Whole Genome Sequencing on DNA samples from patients from ImmunAID cohort.

icons8 france 48 European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (Ecrin)

Adress: 5 Rue Watt; 75013 Paris

Activity: Research Organisations

Web site

The European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (ECRIN) is a sustainable, not-for-profit, distributed infrastructure with the legal status of a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC). ECRIN provides support for the development and implementation of multinational clinical research projects in Europe through services ECRIN’s ‘distributed infrastructure’ includes a Core Team based in Paris, France (headquarters) and European Correspondents (EuCos) working in each Member and Observer Country. ECRIN supports the sponsor INSERM for the management of the cohort of patients with systemic autoinflammatory diseases outside of France. ECRIN will coordinate regulatory / ethical submissions and interactions with competent authorities and ethics committees and will provide on-site monitoring supporting the study in multiple countries.

GERMANY

icons8 allemagne 48 Westfaelische Wilhelms-Universitaet Muenster (WWU)

Adress: Schlossplatz 2; 48149 Muenster

Activity: Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

Web site

With more than 44,500 students, the University of Münster is one of the largest universities in Germany and has developed a strong research profile in natural sciences, humanities, medicine, law and business administration. It targets top-level research in high-performance areas for support and combines this with promoting first-class junior research staff.
Cristoph KesselD Foell nb
C . Kessel               D. Foell
The Department of Paediatric Rheumatology and Immunology led by Prof. Dr. Dirk Foell, as a center for auto inflammatory diseases in childhood, is including patients and collecting biological samples of high quality in ImmunAID cohort. Pr D. FOell is also leading WP5 and his team is in charge of delineating Delineating potential cross-talk between neutrophils and neutrophil products with monocytes, macrophages and T cells.

GREECE

icons8 grèce 48 Idryma Iatroviologikon Ereunon Akademias Athinon (BRFAA)

Adress: Soranou Efesiou 4; 115 27 Athina

Activity: Research Organisations

Web site

Established in 2003, the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens (BRFAA) is already the largest biomedical research institution of Greece with 5 Research Centers, 400 research personnel (postdoctoral fellows, laboratory technicians and Ph.D. students) and 50 faculty members with a track record of scientific excellence coming from leading US and European Institutions
The Laboratory of Immunobiology of the centre for Translational and Clinical Research led by Dr Evangelos Andreakos has been established since 2006 and focuses on the study of the role of innate immunity in acute and chronic inflammation. Affiliated investigators to BRFAA from the University of Athens Medical School and the ‘Attikon’ and ‘Laikon’ University Hospitals (Prof. Boumpas, Prof. Tzioufas, and Prof. Sfikakis) give to BRFAA a strong translational direction.
In addition to patient recruitment the Laboratory of Immunology will study of the mechanisms of resolution of inflammation in SAID patients, unwinding of the molecular networks and pathways controlling SPM production and response.

icons8 grèce 48 Panepistimio Ioanninon (UOI)

Adress: Panepistemioypole Panepistemio Ioanninon; 45110 Ioannina

Activity: Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

Web site

The University of Ioannina ([http://www.uoi.gr/en]/) was founded in 1964 in Ioannina, Epirus, in the North-western part of Greece. Today, the University has 17 departments with over 500 faculty members, 13,500 undergraduate students and more than 3,000 graduate students (MSc and PhD). The University of Ioannina has established a quality management system that is in conformance with the International Management System Standard ISO 9001:2000, as well as the Greek Management Efficiency Standard, with a scope of “Project Management of Research and Development of Technological and Other Related Programs and Activities”.
ExarchosTP nbFotiadisDI nbPapaloukasC nbRigasG nb
  ExarchosTP          FotiadisDI              PapaloukasC       RigasG
The work in ImmunAID project will be undertaken by Prof. Fotiadis research unit, the Unit of Medical Technology & Intelligent Information Systems (MedLab). MedLab is a highly innovative and self-contained research unit strongly activated in the fields of Biomedical Engineering and development of Intelligent Information systems. MedLab’s research activities cover a variety of subjects and they are classified into the following domains: Biomedical Research, Automated Diagnosis - Processing and analysis of biomedical signals (e.g. ECG, EMG) and images (e.g. MRI, ultrasound), Bio magnetism and Biomaterials, Bioinformatics, Networks, Medical Informatics, Data mining, Applications of predictive data mining methodologies, especially in clinical domain. In ImmunAID MedLab’s will design decision-making algorithms, to integrate the use of novel classification in the form of simple algorithms/decision trees.

ITALY

icons8 italie 48 Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesu (Osp P Bam Gesu)

Adress: Piazza Sant Onofrio 4; 00165 Roma

Activity: Research Organisations

Web site

OPBG is a Scientific Institute for Research, Hospitalization and Health Care, Italy’s largest paediatric Hospital providing advanced health care for children and performing basic, clinical and translational research. The Hospital is part of the Italian National Healthcare System and is widely recognized as referral centre for all paediatrics specialties.
The division of Rheumatology and the Lab of ImmunoRheumatology headed by Pr Fabrizio de Benedetti provides care to all rheumatic diseases of children in an in-patient section and dedicated out-patient clinics.
The OPBG follows a large number of patients with systemic JIA and will be involved in the recruitment of patients and collection of biosamples for the ImmunAID cohort.

NETHERLAND

icons8 pays bas 48 Erasmus Universitair Ereunon Centrum Rotterdam (Erasmus MC)

Adress: Dr Molewaterplein 40; 3015 Gd Rotterdam

Activity: Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

Web site

Erasmus University Medical Center Rotterdam is committed to a healthy population and excellence in healthcare through research and education (www.erasmusmc.nl). It is in the top ten of best medical institutes in Europe (QS World University Ranking 2016) and excels in various research fields, studying fundamental and clinical domains as well as public health and prevention with an annual research budget of around €140 million. In addition to scientific research, patient care and education are core tasks of Erasmus MC. It is the top referral center for a region of about five million inhabitants. Erasmus MC is also the largest medical school in the Netherlands.
Department of Immunology Peter Katsikis
The Department of Immunology has extensive experience in diagnostic research while the research group of Katsikis/Erkeland/Mueller has a major focus on miRNA expression and function in immunity.  The Department of Immunology runs the first high throughput robotic multiplex proteomic SOMAscan facility in Europe.  This facility is certified by Somalogic. The department will be in charge of determining the miRNA signature in immune cell populations of SAID and doing high-throughput multiplex proteomic analysis of SAID.  This task will determine the plasma proteome using the highly multiplexed, sensitive, quantitative, and reproducible proteomic SOMAscan™ assay.
The department of clinical immunology P.L.A. van Daele
The department of clinical immunology focuses on patient care and research in immunodeficiency and rare autoimmune and auto inflammatory disorders. P.L.A. van Daele will be responsible for recruitment of patients, filling out eCRF and maintaining patient and sample database and biobank samples. He will make sure that data are valid and complete. He is also responsible for optimizing contact with centers in the Netherlands that refer patients
Department of Bioinformatics/Pathology Peter van der Spek
The department of Bioinformatics was initiated in 2003 and is equipped with state of the art hard and software necessary to deal with the big data produced to combine genomics, proteomics and (cyto-) genetic data to identify genes associated with immunological disorders.
In WP6 data integration enables to identify pathways and new biomarkers of disease prognosis, to pre-determine one’s genetic risk and to design novel therapeutic agents for subtypes of auto immune patients. Integration of MiRNA profiling data and SOMAscan data in order to better diagnostically stratify Auto Immune patients.

 

SLOVANIA

icons8 slovénie 48 Univerzitetni Klinicni Center Ljubljana (UMCL)

Adress: Zaloska Cesta 002; 1000 Ljubljana

Activity: Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

Web site

University Medical Centre Ljubljana (UMCL) is the largest and most research-intensive hospital in Slovenia. University Children’s Hospital Ljubljana (UCHL) is an integral part of the UMCL and is the largest center dedicated to improving children’s health in the country with a long history of clinical and research excellence serving as the national and regional tertiary referral center for paediatric patients from Central and South Eastern European countries.
Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology department of the UCHL provides comprehensive services for children with auto inflammatory and immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. It is the only tertiary care paediatric rheumatology center in Slovenia with approx. 2500 paediatric rheumatology clinic visits per year and is a selected core member of the European Reference Network RITA (“Rare immunological and auto-inflammatory diseases”) and Slovenian National Coordinating Center of the PRINTO network. UMCL will provide structured data and biosamples from a well characterized cohort of patients with systemic auto inflammatory diseases.

SPAIN

icons8 espagne 48 Hospital San Joan de Déu (HSJD)

Adress: Paseo Sant Joan De Deu 2; 08950 Esplugues De Llobregat

Activity: Research Organisations

Web site

Hospital Sant Joan de Déu-Barcelona Children’s Hospital (HSJD) is one of the leading medical centers in Europe for childhood and adolescence and offers a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach to health care from birth through 18 years of age. HSJD is a private not-for-profit center, working mainly for the National Health System offering the public contracted services. HSJD is accredited by the Spanish Ministry of Health as a reference center for all Spain in a wide range of specialties and conditions (e.g., orthopaedics’, neurology and neurosurgery, reconstructive surgery, ophthalmology).
Jordi Anton nb
J. Anton
As the paediatric center of the University of Barcelona, HSJD is associated with the Clinic Hospital being the best-known hospital alliance in Spain and one of the international references for highly specialized hospital care, teaching and research. Given the major focus on paediatric and child development research, the Institute of Paediatric Research Hospital Sant Joan de Déu (IRP-HSJD) was created in 2015 by an institutional agreement and scientific collaboration between the HSJD and with Fundació Sant Joan de Déu, the Institute of Biomedicine of the University of Barcelona (IBUB), the Institute of Neurosciences (IR3C) University of Barcelona (UB), and the Biomedical Engineering Research Centre (CREB) of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC). Jordi Antón is in charge of coordinating of Spanish clinical centers and recruiting SAID patients.

SWITZERLAND

icons8 suisse 48 Université de Genève (UNIGE)

Adress: Rue Du General Dufour 24; 1211 Geneve

Activity: Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

Web site

Founded in 1559 by Jean Calvin, the University of Geneva (UNIGE) is Switzerland’s second largest university enjoying a strong international reputation, both for the quality of its research (it ranks among the top institutions among the League of European Research Universities) and the excellence of its education. This acclaim has been won in part due to its strong ties to many national and international Geneva-based organizations, such as the World Health Organization..
The Department of Internal Medicine of the University of Geneva includes different specialties. The activity of Prof. Gabay group focuses on the role of cytokines of the interleukin (IL)-1 family in the immune and inflammatory responses. In particular, the group studies are focusing on experimental models of arthritis and other inflammatory diseases.In ImmunAID it will be involved in the measurement of IL-1 and IL-18 in biological samples with access to a unique assay that measures the biologically active fraction of IL-18.
Additionally, Pr. Gabay entity includes a clinical setting with outpatient and inpatient units associated with a clinical laboratory and a basic science laboratory that will provide patients and biosample to ImmunAID cohort.

 icons8 suisse 48 FMF & AID Global Association (FMFandAID)

Adress: Schuracherstrasse 25a; 8306 Bruttisellen

Activity: Other

Web site

The FMF (Familial Mediterranean Fever) and AID (auto-inflammatory diseases) Global Association is a non-profit umbrella organisation founded in Zurich Switzerland by Malena Vetterli. It was established to support patients worldwide who suffer from Familial Mediterranean Fever or other autoinflammatory diseases.  It provides 24/7 social media online support for patients with FMF and AID in several European languages, advocates for them, provides information, raises awareness, educates patients by providing them with the latest scientific information, participates in relevant congresses and conferences to bring the latest information to the patient communities, and encourages strong bonds between our members and their own doctors.In ImmunAID this association will:
  • ensure that ImmunAID achieves its objectives and expected impacts.
  • put in place procedures and tools needed to ensure the project progresses in compliance with the work plan and produces timely and quality results and oversee compliance of all activities with EC rules.

TURKEY

icons8 turquie 48 Hacettepe Universitesi (HACETTEPE)

Adress: Hacettepe Universitesi Beytepe Kampusu Rektorluk Binasi; 06800 Cankaya Ankara

Activity: Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

Web site

Hacettepe University, as one of the leading universities in the country, keeps contributing to social development and universal values in the fields of science, technology and art. Hacettepe University is one of the referral center of the rare diseases in Turkey.
The Department of Internal Medicine will collect clinical data and biosamples from AOSD patients

UNITED KIGDOM

icons8 grande bretagne 48 University of Leeds (UNIVLEEDS)

Adress: Woodhouse Lane; Ls2 9jt Leeds

Activity: Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

Web site

The University of Leeds (UNIVLEEDS) is acclaimed world-wide for the quality of its teaching and research and continues to be ranked within the top 100 universities in the QS world rankings. It is one of the largest universities in the UK with over 30,000 students (over 7,000 post graduate students) and approximately 6,450 staff of 99 different nationalities, attached to 560 different undergraduate and 300 postgraduate degree programs. Leeds is also a leading member of the UK’s prestigious research intensive Russell Group universities. In particular, it is currently coordinating 23 H2020 projects, and is a partner in a further 26 successful H2020 projects.
Experimental Rheumatology group studies the molecular mechanisms of responses to biologics and the unfolded protein response (UPR) in the pathogenesis of Rheumatoid Arthritis. In ImmunAID the group will be in charge of the study of inflammasome function by leading WP3

icons8 grande bretagne 48 University College London (ULC)

Adress: Gower Street; Wc1e 6bt London

Activity: Higher or Secondary Education Establishments

Web site

UCL is one of the world’s leading multidisciplinary universities, with more than 11,000 staff and 38,000 students from 150 different countries. Founded in 1826 in the heart of London, UCL was the first university in England to welcome students of any religion and the first to welcome women on equal terms with men. UCL operate in a global context and is committed to excellence, innovation and the promotion of global understanding in all activities: research, teaching, learning, and enterprise and community engagement.
The National Amyloidosos center is a highly specialized center with an interested in systemic auto inflammatory disorders as well as Amyloidosis. It is part of the Division of Medicine of University College London and based within the Royal Free NHS London Foundation Trust Hospital.
Helen Lachmann will be in charge of the inclusion of patients with monogenetic auto inflammatory diseases, patients with Fever of unknown origin and patients with Adult Onset Stills disease.