A Biomarker-Based Platform for Early Diagnosis of Chronic Liver Disease to Enable Personalized Therapy

Project Information

LIVERAIM

Grant agreement ID: 101132901

DOI

10.3030/101132901

EC signature date 27 November 2023

Start date 1 March 2024

End date 28 February 2030

Funded under

• Health

Total cost

€ 25 053 616,39

EU contribution

€ 13 854 592,75

Coordinated by

FUNDACIO DE RECERCA CLINIC BARCELONA-INSTITUT D INVESTIGACIONS BIOMEDIQUES AUGUST PI I SUNYER
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - LIVERAIM (A Biomarker-Based Platform for Early Diagnosis of Chronic Liver Disease to Enable Personalized Therapy)

Reporting period: 2024-03-01 to 2025-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Chronic Liver Diseases represent a significant public health challenge in Europe and are a leading cause of premature mortality. These diseases often progress silently in their early stages, leading to late diagnoses when cirrhosis or end- stage liver damage has already occurred, thereby limiting treatment options. This underscores the urgent need for early detection and intervention.

The LIVERAIM project aims to develop and validate a biomarker-based screening platform for the early detection of liver disease in asymptomatic individuals. This innovative approach will facilitate personalized and effective treatments, with the goal of halting or even reversing disease progression. Additionally, the project will address barriers to screening programs across Europe and shift the paradigm from late-stage diagnosis to early screening and personalized therapeutic treatments.

The LiverAim Consortium brings together leading academic researchers in liver disease, industry experts in biomarkers and pharmaceuticals, patient organizations, top health economists, public health professionals, and AI developers. Building on previous EU-Funded research, the consortium will assess the accuracy of existing biomarkers in detecting chronic liver disease. These findings will be utilized to create a screening platform, which will be validated through a large scale clinical study involving 100,000 participants.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

To date, the LIVERAIM project has focused on measuring various commercial biomarkers supplied by Roche, Siemens Healthineers, Sysmex Europe, and Nordic Bioscience. This has involved analyzing over 24,000 participant samples under the umbrella of the BIOLIVER study. These samples were selected and shipped from different cohorts across Europe and centralized at the Biobank at IDIBAPS, measured at the CORE Diagnostic Lab based at Hospital Clinic Barcelona, as well as at the laboratory facilities of both Roche and Nordic Bioscience. Some of these cohorts have been funded by previously awarded EC projects.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The LiverAim project has made strong scientific progress in its early stages, keeping the project on track with no delays expected for upcoming tasks. A key achievement so far has been the measurement of 9 commercial biomarkers in over 22,000 samples within the first 12 months. This phase is on course to be completed by April 2025, covering the full cohort of more than 24,000 samples.
Three of the nine biomarkers were measured externally, outside the Core Lab at Hospital Clinic. The findings from this work are expected to significantly advance our understanding of biomarkers, helping to identify early signs of liver disease with greater precision than currently possible. Initial results from the biomarker analysis are expected by Month 18 and will be reported in RP2.

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