Summary

The U-BIOPRED project aims to speed up the development of better treatments for patients with severe asthma. Several knowledge gaps today make it hard to predict in the early stages of drug development how well a new experimental medicine will work in patients. One of the major difficulties is the finding that there are many different forms of severe asthma, caused by different mechanisms of disease. Patients with different types of asthma may react differently to new or existing treatments.

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Achievements & News

IMI lung disease projects to present findings to press and patients
On 28 September IMI projects U-BIOPRED and PROactive and the European Lung Foundation will hold a special event for patients and the public.###IMI Executive Director Michel Goldman will open the event with a presentation on how Europe is responding to the needs of respiratory patients. Other talks will explain how patients and scientists are working together in the U-BIOPRED and PROactive projects and Marc Decramer, President of the European Respiratory Society, will discuss the roadmap for respiratory research in the years ahead. There will also be time for attendees to ask questions of some of Europe’s leading respiratory researchers. The event is part of the 2011 European Respiratory Society (ERS) Annual Congress in Amsterdam.
(September 2011)

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U-BIOPRED asthma art contest winner announced
Dutch student Marije Kootstra has been named as the winner of the U-BIOPRED asthma art contest. The winning painting can be seen on the U-BIOPRED website. ###‘Asthma plays an important role in my life,’ explains Marije, who is 17. In order to control her condition, she takes 10 medicines, sees a specialist regularly and has undergone a nose operation as well as other treatments. Yet despite these efforts, Marije’s asthma is still not fully under control; in poor weather, she cannot cycle to school and so misses classes. She has even been hospitalised following severe asthma attacks. Nevertheless, Marije remains hopeful for the future. ‘I hope that with the right medicines I can again get my asthma back under control,’ she says. Marije wins a trip for two to Amsterdam, where she will pick up her prize at the opening ceremony of the European Respiratory Society meeting in September. U-BIOPRED is working to speed up the development of new, more effective treatments for severe asthma. Patients are strongly represented in the project through the participation of six patients’ organisations.
(July 2011)

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Knowledge management, the (tran)smart way
Knowledge management is key to the success of many IMI projects, and the tranSMART system is proving a popular tool for this. TranSMART is a translational medicine platform based on open source software and data that was originally developed by Johnson & Johnson for its own projects. ###However, it quickly became clear that the system could be extremely useful for other groups. Today, tranSMART is used by research consortia on both sides of the Atlantic. The first IMI project to use tranSMART was U-BIOPRED, which is using it to collate data on asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) from four different companies, for example. Eventually, U-BIOPRED partners will be able to access the data and use it to test new hypotheses. Other ongoing projects that are implementing or about to implement tranSMART are OncoTrack, SAFE-T and BT Cure; some of the 3rd Call projects are also planning to use the system. Looking to the future, the 4th Call topic eTRIKS (European Translational Information & Knowledge Management Services) will support efforts to take tranSMART to the next level.
(July 2011)

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U-BIOPRED recruits first adult into major asthma study
IMI project U-BIOPRED has recruited the first of over 1 000 people into a major new study of severe asthma. ###U-BIOPRED researchers will draw on data from blood and tissue samples, lung function tests, exhaled air samples and examinations of the airways, plus reports of people’s own experiences, to build up a detailed picture (or ‘handprint’) of each individual’s condition. By comparing data from hundreds of people, the team hopes to identify groups of patients with similar handprints. These groups will allow researchers to define different kinds of severe asthma, paving the way towards personalised treatments for patients. U-BIOPRED project coordinator Peter Sterk of the University of Amsterdam said that running such a study would have been “unthinkable” without IMI.
(May 2011)

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U-BIOPRED – new findings demonstrate value of data sharing
Work in the U-BIOPRED project has proven the value of data sharing by generating an important result in asthma research. Both GSK and Pfizer were working on a similar animal model of severe asthma, but when data from both companies was combined, it quickly became clear that the model would not be as useful as was hoped. If they had continued working on their own, it would have taken the companies months to realise this.###Data sharing in U-BIOPRED has since been given a further boost by the presence in the consortium of a new partner in the form of pharmaceutical company Centocor B.V., a member of the J&J group of companies. In addition to expertise, Centocor brings to the consortium a knowledge management system called TransMART. Elsewhere, U-BIOPRED has published research in the journal Thorax that will help to clarify the diagnosis of severe asthma, something that will help doctors to manage these patients more effectively. The paper provides information on what clinicians should check for when considering classifying a patient as having severe asthma. Developing more individualised characterisations of severe asthma contributes to U-BIOPRED’s goal of redefining severe asthma and lays the foundation for personalised treatments for severe asthma sufferers.

Finally, as part of its efforts to connect patients with researchers and clinicians, U-BIOPRED has launched an Asthma Art Contest. Anyone with severe asthma can enter the competition, and all art forms are welcome.
(April 2011)

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Participants

EFPIA

• Novartis Pharma AG, Basel, Switzerland
• Laboratorios Almirall S.A., Barcelona, Spain
• AstraZeneca AB, Södertälje, Sweden
• Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH, Ingelheim, Germany
• Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A, Parma, Italy
• GlaxoSmithKline Research and Development LTD, Brentford, UK
• F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Basel, Switzerland
• UCB Pharma SA, Brussels, Belgium
• Centocor, a J&J company

Universities, Research Organisations, Public Bodies & Non-Profit

• Academisch Medisch Centrum bij de Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• The University of Southampton, Southampton, UK
• Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK
• Università degli Studi di Catania, Catania, Italy
• University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, Rome, Italy
• Hvidovre Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark
• The Jagiellonian University Medical College, Krakow, Poland
• Universität Bern, Bern, Switzerland
• Semmelweis Egyetem, Budapest, Hungary
• University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
• Université de la Médietrranée, Aix-Marseille II, Marseille, France
• Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V., München, Germany
• Umeå University, Umea, Sweden
• Universiteit Gent, Gent, Belgium
• Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, France
• Universita’ Cattolica Del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy
• Københavns Universitet (University of Copenhagen), Copenhagen, Denmark
• Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
• University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
• Universitetet i Bergen, Bergen, Norway
• Astma Fonds Longstichting, Leusden, the Netherlands
• European Lung Foundation, Lausanne, Switzerland
• Asthma UK, London, UK
• European Federation of Asthma and Allergy Associations, Brussels, Belgium
• Lega Italiana Anti Fumo – ONLUS, Catania, Italy
• International Primary Care Respiratory Group, Aberdeen, UK
   

SMEs

• Synairgen Research Limited, Southampton, UK
• Aerocrine AB, Solna, Sweden
• BioSci Consulting, Maasmechelen, Belgium
   

Other

• Philips Electronics Nederland B.V., Eindhoven, the Netherlands