U-BIOPRED project update 2014–2015

U-BIOPRED is an IMI funded project, receiving the support of the EU and EFPIA

www.UBIOPRED.eu

Introducing U-BIOPREDWhat is U-BIOPRED?

U-BIOPRED (Unbiased BIOmarkers in PREDiction of respiratory disease outcomes) is a 6-year research project (2010-2015). Although the project is coming to a close, the breadth of its outputs means there is still much more work which can be done to build on the project achievements. The project members are committed to taking the work of U-BIOPRED further, communicating their results and providing a legacy for future research.

This research project is using information and samples from adults and children to learn more about different types of asthma to ensure better diagnosis and treatment for each person.

• to understand more about severe asthma• to determine how it differs from person to person• to uncover new information and ideas that could lead to the

creation of effective new treatments• use advanced mathematics to pipeline omics and clinical

measurements - U-BIOPRED fingerprints – to create U-BIOPRED handprints, developing a ‘handprint’ of severe asthma sub-types.

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Major achievementsU-BIOPRED has so far achieved 90% of the goals initially set. Ongoing work will take our efforts further, achieving yet more than originally projected. The goals that have been met include:

• Agreeing a definition of severe asthma to be used by every project member and partner organisation

• Identifying patterns in the data including higher levels of a specific protein in their blood for people with severe asthma who smoke have. These clusters were the first step to developing fingerprints

• A cold virus was developed and approved to test the relationship between severe asthma and the common cold

• 12 papers on different areas of the project have been published in academic journals over the last year. Visit the publication area on the U-BIOPRED website to see a full list of papers published.

U-BIOPRED has been able to shift thinking from asthma as a single disease with a single treatment, to the awareness of different subtypes of asthma, which can be identified through tests so that patients can receive better treatment that is more closely matched to their subtype of asthma.

By achieving this, U-BIOPRED is helping make personalised medicine a reality, where each person’s unique type of severe asthma can be identified and treated with the best treatment for them.

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Next steps (2015/16) Although the EU funding for the project ends in September 2015, the U-BIOPRED members are committed to taking the work of U-BIOPRED further, which will see results coming from the project continuing into 2016.

Aims include:

• To complete the analysis of the data and ‘lock’ the shared database so that everyone using the data is using the same/correct data

• Identifying, refining and confirming the handprints• Completing the common cold study• Identifying the potential for using the results of U-BIOPRED

in clinical practice and how this could be acheived, for example, what should be looked at in future studies

• Looking at how the work of U-BIOPRED (handprints and fingerprints) could be used in medicines development, for example through discussions with the European Medicines Agency (EMA)

• Complete publications on findings of all U-BIOPRED-related studies, and produce lay abstracts for all projects idenitfied as having wider patient and public interest by the Patient Input Platform (PIP)

• Communicate the findings of the project to medical and scientific audiences, for example at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress 2015

• Develop guidance for patient involvement in future research projects to ensure best practice and maximum opportunity for patient involvement, for example producing a booklet for IMI project coordinators and available on the IMI website for funding applicants.

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Latest U-BIOPRED publications A core element of U-BIOPRED is the involvement of patients, integrating patients into the project from the planning through the analysis stages. A new commentary from the U-BIOPRED Patient Input Platform (PIP) outlines how this involvement has been achieved and the five key principles for meaningful engagement in research projects.

The paper, ‘From tokenism to meaningful engagement: best practices in patient involvement in an EU project’ has been published in the new open access journal Research, Involvement and Engagement.

The five key principles that PIP hope will be used to inform the involvement of patients in future research projects are:

• involve early• involve deeply• have patients feedback on project progress• include patients in dissemination• help patients convey their own story To receive updates on the latest publications coming out of U-BIOPRED, sign up to the newsletter on the U-BIOPRED website (www.UBIOPRED.eu) or follow the project on social media (Twitter and LinkedIn).

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U-BIOPRED at ERS International Congress 2015 Symposia Fingerprinting severe asthma translational: Experience from the U-BIOPRED project Tuesday 29 September, Room 7.2, Session 380 10:45–12:45

Agenda

10:45 Introduction to the U-BIOPRED project P. Sterk (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

10:50 Defining the clinical clusters of severe asthma within U-BIOPRED M. Amelink (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

11:15 Biomarker profiling of asthma phenotypesP. Skipp (Southampton, UK)

11:40 Integrating fingerprints: molecular phenotyping of severe asthmaB. De Meulder (Lyon, France)

12:05 Severe asthma in children L. Fleming (London, UK)

12:30 Patient’s testimonial B. Flood (Gorey, Ireland)

Chairs S. Wenzel (Pittsburgh, USA), C. Wheelock (Stockholm, Sweden) Aims The UBIOPRED project (Unbiased BIOmarkers in PREDiction of respiratory disease outcomes) aims to increase our understanding of the different types of severe asthma by defining biomarkers for severe asthma. For this, a large cohort and a multi-omics approach is being employed. The resulting huge database can be used to stratify patients according to phenotypes or clusters; identify individual biomarkers of disease by using readily accessible samples; define single molecular fingerprints by using ‘omics technologies; and integrate clinical, biomarker, and ‘omics approaches to obtain individualised disease signatures or handprints.

Target audience Clinicians, scientists, clinical scientists, cell and molecular biologists, and translational researchers.

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Oral presentations and poster discussions

Sunday 27 SeptemberHot topics on airway diseases: new horizons in treatmentTranscriptomic fingerprinting in severe adult-onset asthma shows type2-high and inflammatory-cell gene signatures in the U-BIOPRED cohort – P.Hekking (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

08:30–10:30Oral presentation Room 2.1. Session 58

New insights into lung disease pathogenesisMultivariate cluster analysis of immunopathological and clinical data from the U-BIOPRED severe asthma study: preliminary results – S. Wilson (Southampton, UK)

12:50–14:40Poster Hall 14-13 / Session 104

Airway remodelling: recent developmentsAirway remodelling in the U-BIOPRED severe asthma cohort– S. Wilson (Southampton, UK)

12:50–14:40PosterHall 14-14/ Session 105

Phenotyping asthma with biomarkers• Characteristics of the frequent exacerbator in U-BIOPRED

adult severe asthma cohort – U. Hoda (St Albans, UK)• Breathomics can discriminate between anti IgE-treated and

non-treated severe asthma adults – P. Montuschi (Rome, Italy)

14:45–16:45 Oral presentationRoom 2.1 / Session 160

Monday 28 September

Advances in the future treatment of severe asthma• Systemic corticosteroid-associated serum analyte profiles

in the U-BIOPRED severe asthma cohort – M. Loza (Spring House, USA)

• Th2 subsetting of U-BIOPRED asthma subjects based on airway transciptomic profiles – S. Pavlidis (London, UK)

• Sputum supernatant profiling reveals inflammasome-associated signatures in severe asthmatics in U-BIOPRED – C. Rossios (London, UK)

• Mapping a mouse model of severe asthma to human asthma using gene set variation analysis – K. Russell (London, UK)

08:30–10:30Oral presentationRoom 4.1 / Session 216

Exhaled biomarkers in children and adults with airways diseaseExhaled breath VOCs are associated with nocturnal wakening in asthmatic children – Y. Wang (Eindhoven, The Netherlands)

10:45–12:45PosterRoom 13.2 / Session 246

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The immunology of allergic airway diseaseCharacteristics of asthma in U-BIOPRED severe and non-severe cohorts with distinct biomarker profiles– E.P. Ingenito (Cambridge, UK)

12:50–14:40 Poster Hall 14-23 / Session 271

Tuesday 29 SeptemberRespiratory translational research: novel mechanisms, diagnostic markers and Space OdysseyThe first U-BIOPRED sputum handprint of severe asthma– D. Lefaudeux (Lyon, France)

10:45–12:45Oral presentationRoom 5.1 / Session 386

Exhaled biomarkers in monitoring airways diseaseUnbiased clustering of severe asthma patients based on exhaled breath profiles – P. Brinkman (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

12:50–14:40PosterHall 14-18 / Session 415

Non-exhaled biomarkers in the assessment of airways diseaseeTRIKS IT platforms for large-scale biomedical research – I. Pandis (London, UK)

12:50–14:40 PosterHall 14-17 / Session 414

Wednesday 30 SeptemberHow to involve patients in research projectsFrom a successful application to an effective partnership • The benefits and challenges to involving patients as

project partners: the professional perspective – P. Sterk (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

• The benefits and challenges of involving patients as project partners: the patient perspective – D. Supple (Newport, UK)

07:00–08:00Registration requiredRoom Emerald / Session 484

Promising novel findings in translational pulmonary research• MMP10 and MET as predictive classifiers of bronchial

eosinophilic asthma in UBIOPRED – C. Kuo (London, UK)• The first U-BIOPRED blood handprint of severe asthma

– B. De Meulder (Lyon, France)

08:30–10:30PosterRoom E102 / Session 507

Advances from translational research in respiratory infectionsSusceptibility to influenza virus infection in asthma biopsies and the effect of topical steroids – B. Nicholas (Southampton, UK)

10:45–12:45 PosterRoom G102-103 / Session 526

Would you like to find out more about U-BIOPRED? For ongoing updates on results from the project and details of data release:

• Visit the U-BIOPRED website and sign up to the newsletter at www.UBIOPRED.eu

• Connect with U-BIOPRED on social media:

@UBIOPRED #ubiopred

www.linkedin.com/groups/UBIOPRED-4710653

U-BIOPRED has made a commitment to make its data publically available. This will occur in a controlled manner, in line with the publication of results, and a process will be set up to handle requests for data.

U-BIOPRED is an IMI funded project, receiving the support of the EU and EFPIA

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