Unprecedented study of inflammatory skin disease data gets underway
June 2020

Despite a relatively good choice of treatment options for inflammatory skin diseases like psoriasis and atopic dermatitis, finding a drug that definitely works in a given patient is still very much trial and error. The BIOMAP project, which launched in 2019, will carry out the biggest study yet of the molecular drivers of inflammatory skin diseases, with particular focus on psoriasis and atopic dermatitis, in an effort to uncover tell-tale biomarkers that will help predict the course of the disease, and the response to therapy. ###As a first step, BIOMAP is bringing together data from previous and ongoing clinical studies to create a large data platform capable of delivering sound results.

Having spent the first year of the project making sure their data collections adhere to stringent rules governing patient data privacy, the project partners have now started uploading the datasets to their central data platform.

‘The datasets are being harmonised according to what we call our ‘glossary’, so that the nomenclature and phrasing is the same across all cohorts, and that key information is available from all of them,’ says project coordinator Stephan Weidinger of the University Hospital in Kiel, Germany. He gives a simple example to illustrate why this is necessary: ‘It starts with the disease name itself. In some studies, the disease is called ‘atopic dermatitis’, and in other studies, it’s ‘atopic eczema’. And then there are studies where is called just ‘eczema’.’ The diagnostic criteria can also vary from study to study. ‘So, we have to check that and make it clear what criteria has been used and to which degree it is comparable.’

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