Project description
Improving severe asthma treatment
Severe asthma affects millions of people worldwide, and while new biologic therapies have brought hope, many patients do not respond to them. Understanding why requires deeper insight into how immune cells behave in airway tissues and how biologics affect them. The ERC-funded TARGET-AIR-LAB project investigates the role of type 2 lymphocytes that are implicated in airway inflammation. Researchers will elucidate how biologic treatments alter the movement, differentiation and function of type 2 lymphocytes using unique airway tissue samples from asthma patients before and during treatment. The project will also provide insight into the epigenetic and transcriptional changes that biologics induce in these cells. Results are expected to reveal new therapeutic targets and strategies for tailoring biologic treatments, ultimately improving clinical outcome.
Objective
The development of biologics targeting cytokines involved in type 2 lymphocyte function and activation offers new hope for more than 16 million patients living with severe asthma, but not all patients respond, and none are cured. This calls for increased understanding of airway tissue type 2 lymphocytes and how they are regulated by novel biologics in severe asthma. I discovered human innate lymphoid cells type 2 (ILC2), and have shown how they, in addition to T helper 2 (Th2) cells, orchestrate type 2 immunity in tissues. Building on our unexpected finding that treatment with anti-interleukin (IL)-5 biologics causes an increase in circulating type 2 lymphocytes with modified tissue homing receptor expression, I propose that biologics disrupt airway chemoattractants, lymphocyte trafficking, differentiation, and function, including the underlying epigenetic, transcriptional and functional regulation. To test this innovative hypothesis, I will capitalize on leading a clinical asthma research unit, performing pioneering immunological studies using unique airway tissue samples from patients with severe asthma before and during biologics treatment. My translational team of clinical, immunology and computational researchers will uncover the unique features of airway resident lymphocytes and the epigenetic and transcriptional effects of biologics on circulating and airway resident lymphocytes. We will also dissect the molecular and functional mechanisms involved in lymphocyte trafficking and differentiation in the airways. My studies will break new ground by increased understanding of human airway lymphocyte diversification, trafficking, differentiation and function in relation to biologics treatment efficacy. I will thereby reveal new targets for treatment and means to better tailor the use of biologics. Building on the outcomes of this proposal, my long-term goal is to advance the possibilities for induction of remission in severe asthma by targeting airway lymphocytes.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine pneumology asthma
- medical and health sciences basic medicine immunology
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics epigenetics
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
171 77 STOCKHOLM
Sweden
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.