Uppsala University, Uppsala University Hospital and the European Infrastructure for Translational Medicine (EATRIS) have formed a collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to deliver a clinical and scientific expert network for the development and application of innovative imaging methods for inflammatory diseases. This international multi-site hub will produce several projects per year with enhanced speed and throughput.

While existing clinical imaging tools provide useful endpoints in clinical trials, they typically lack sufficient cellular and molecular information to fully understand drug response. Imaging has the potential to interrogate inflammatory cell populations, quantitatively in different tissues. This alliance aims to unlock this potential by delivering new clinical tools. Applying imaging in information-rich, small cohort studies can provide a high, immediate impact to enhance R&D productivity: developing our understanding of disease in the patient; enriching clinical trial cohorts; measuring therapeutic response.

“It is a great opportunity for Uppsala University and Uppsala University Hospital to be a part of this immune inflammation imaging hub. With unique expertise, Uppsala will have an important role in this network and the scientific challenging projects to come. We hope for a long-term and productive collaboration with one of the largest pharmaceutical companies of the market,” says Mats Larhed, EATRIS National Director, Sweden.
The imaging hub aims to achieve these goals by: (1) optimising existing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) technology for drug development. (2) translating emerging PET and optical cell-specific probes towards the clinic. The first three projects with a focus around immune cell specific imaging have now been initiated.

The initiative creates a scientific bridge between GSK’s clinical imaging scientists and five leading European imaging and experimental medicine research institutes within the EATRIS network: Academic Medical Center Amsterdam, Radboud University Medical Center Nijmegen, University Medical Center Groningen, VU University Medical Center Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and Uppsala University and Uppsala University Hospital in Sweden. To enable experts in the alliance to fully focus on the scientific and technical challenges, EATRIS acts as portfolio manager, playing a key role in developing and administering the legal framework and operations, for optimal speed and efficiency. EATRIS will facilitate initiation of both independent and collaborative transnational projects under a master framework, with up-front auditing and quality agreements.

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