Better control and treatment of Ulcerative Colitis (UC) by exploring the
universe of microenvironment imposed tissue signatures and their correlates
in liquid biopsies

lmmune-mediated diseases are extremely diverse - patients with the same
diagnosis may see the disease progress in very different ways, and respond
differently to treatments. This is because the course of the disease is
influenced by multiple factors, including the patient's genes, immune system,
environment, and the microbes living in !heir gut. Furthermore, all of these
factors interact with and impact on one another. As a result, it is very hard
to predict how the disease will develop in a specific patient, and which
treatments will be effective.
Hence, mechanistic understanding of this heterogeneity and biomarkers
predictive for disease control and therapy response over time are important
prerequisites of a future precision medicine in IMIDs. lmmUniverse has been
formed as a European transdisciplinary consortium to tackle these unmet needs
and to understand the role of the crosstalk between tissue microenvironment and
immune cells in disease progression and response to therapy of ulcerative
colitis (UC) and atopie dermatitis (AD).
The consortium will combine analysis of tissue-derived signatures with
"circulating signatures" detectable in liquid biopsies, employing
state-of-the-art profiling technologies
to provide new validated diagnostics in IMID that are expected to improve
patient management, lead to increased patient well-being and will significantly
reduce the socioeconomic burden of these diseases.
lmmuniverse Work Package 5 (WP5) will validate the disease pathway -and
mechanism signatures identified in the multi omic discovery WP2 in immune cells
in affected tissue and peripheral blood. WP5 aims to further substantiate our
understanding of the immune­mediated gut disease ulcerative colitis (UC). WP5
will use liquid biopsies (peripheral blood), affected and non-affected gut
biopsies to generate transcriptome, proteome, DNA-methylome and mi RNA
signatures of immune cell subsets and analyse the association between immune
cells circulating in peripheral blood and the microenvironment of gut tissue
Also this WP aims to develop a protocol to analyse and sort living immune cells
from cryopreserved tissue. Ultimately, the project's findings should contribute
to a better, more precise diagnosis for patients; and better information on how
severe the disease is likely to be for each individual patient and how it will
progress over time. The project overall aim is to improve disease
stratification, successful treatment selection and therapy follow-up (early
detection of side effects or non-responsiveness).

The main aim of this project is to obtain a better control and treatment of
immune-mediated diseases by exploring the universe of microenvironment imposed
tissue signatures and their correlates in liquid biopsies.

This is a study in which patients donate extra blood and gut biopsies once
during a regular outpatient clinic visit.

The patients are seen during their regular outpatient visits.
- Sampling (once) of additional biopsies (4x inflamed tissue, 4x non inflamed
tissue) during a regular colonoscopy will take approximately 10 minutes
- Drawing of 4 additonal blood tubes (once) during a regular blood test will
take approximately 10 minutes.
- We do not expect any complications of these procedures.