Project R-16408

PHARmacogenomics of psoriatic Arthritis using multiOmics (Research)

Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a chronic inflammatory joint disease that causes pain and stiffness. Despite the development of successful treatment strategies such as TNF-inhibitors (TNFi) and IL-17 inhibitors (IL-17i), up to 40% of patients is not responding to available treatment strategies, partially due to a trial-and-error principle, leading to delays in care and higher healthcare costs. A more personalized approach is needed to predict which treatment will work best for each individual. This project aims to develop a clinically applicable biomarker-based algorithm to predict individual responses to TNFi and IL-17i in PsA. A biobank with PsA patient samples will be established, ensuring standardized disease classification and treatment response assessment. By integrating genomics, transcriptomics, immunomics and lipidomics, researchers will identify biological signatures that indicate how a patient is likely to respond to different therapies. These signatures will be integrated with clinical data to develop predictive algorithms and will be validated in an independent cohort. A prototype software tool for biomarker-based treatment prediction will be developed under the guidance of an advisory board together with a health economic evaluation to assess its costeffectiveness. By translating these findings into a precision medicine tool, this project will support personalized treatment selection, improving therapeutic efficacy and advancing stratified medicine in PsA.

01 March 2026 - 28 February 2029