Identification of novel therapeutic targets and biomarkers to develop individualized and phase dependent therapies for ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s disease.

To this aim, we have developed three platforms: The human chronic inflammatory disease, HuCID Profiling platform is based on a panel of surface markers of immune cells to determine the individual immune profile of patients. Analysis leads to a better understanding of the inflammatory processes and will ultimately lead to stratification of patients for therapies. The HuCID Disease Map depicts the communication of epithelial cells, immune cells and fibrocytes and leads to the prediction of mechanistic side effects. The HuCID UC and the HuCID CD animal models are based on immune-compromised mice reconstituted with peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with UC or CD. This model gives a better reflection of the human disease and allows for testing of therapeutics directed against human targets. The combination of all three platforms will lead to risk reduction in clinical trials.